All those ads are paying off.
DraftKings padded its already massive lead in Massachusetts online sports betting last month, with its market share ahead of the combined total from the commonwealth’s other five operators, according to the numbers released Monday by the Massachusetts Gaming Commission.
The total amount of dollars bet on sports in Massachusetts grew to more than $579 million in April, up more than $11 million from March. (April had eight more days of action, with online wagering having launched March 10.) Online sports bets accounted for a dominating 97.75 percent of that total, almost a percentage point more than its already lopsided share from the month before.
The amount of online wagers placed came to more than $566 million. DraftKings’s gain to 50.1 percent of that in April (from 47 percent in March) came as national leader FanDuel’s share dropped 2.5 percent to 30.5. Sitting well back were BetMGM (7.6, down close to a percentage point), Barstool (4.3, down more than a percentage point), WynnBet (4.0, up less than a percentage point), and Caesars (3.4, up less than a percentage point).
The amount of taxable gaming revenue from the six online operators jumped 28 percent to more than $58 million, representing 99.2 percent of collected tax dollars. That yielded $11.7 million, with online operators taxed at 20 percent (compared with 15 percent for the retail books).
Wagers at the state’s three in-person sportsbooks dropped almost 35 percent to $13 million. And thanks to some big wins by bettors, the taxes collected fell even steeper to just $89,546.23, 59 percent less than the month before.
MGM Springfield’s sportsbook had a stable month in terms of wagers placed — $1.65 million, just $10,000 less than in March — but the house lost more than $228,000. Encore Boston Harbor’s sportsbook saw its handle fall by more than 40 percent to $7.98 million; a WynnBET spokesperson attributed the loss to online betting. (Online, WynnBET had only a 2.03 percent hold in April, meaning at least one and perhaps several patrons enjoyed considerable winnings.)
Plainridge Park Casino’s handle decreased by 30 percent month to month. Its 11 percent hold was by far the best of the brick-and-mortar operators, with Encore at just 3.14 percent and MGM Springfield nearly 14 percent in the red.
The statewide average hold for the online sportsbooks was 10.58 percent, up a bit from 10.35 percent in March.
Michael Silverman can be reached at [email protected].
