AZ Sports Betting Experienced Seasonal Drop

Arizona sports betting had a seasonal drop in April, with a handle down 29% to $512 million compared to the month of March. Despite this, the state still ranks among the top 10 for sports betting handled during April.

April is typically a sluggish month for sports betting, as there are few major sporting events during the month. One of the main contributors to the decline was the close of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament, which saw a significant drop in handle from March. However, there are still several major sporting events taking place in May that could help boost Arizona’s overall sports betting handle for the month.

Ted Vogt, Director of the Arizona Department of Gaming, is still shows confidence to their performance despite the drop. The Director stated:

“Event wagering levels continue to look strong in Arizona, with over half a billion dollars wagered during April.”

I am excited to see how the state closes out its first year of legal event wagering in the coming months.” He added.

This can be attributed to Arizona still managing to rank in the top 10 sports betting markets for the month (as of July 5, 2022), which is remarkable given that sports betting in the state isn’t even a year old and the other states on the list have had legal sports wagering for at least a few years.

Sports betting figures in the state dropped to $512.8 million in April which shows a total of 26% decrease from the $692 million record-breaking handle for the month of March. However, despite dropping by more than a quarter, the reported figures in April still mark the 3rd best performance since inception. According to official statistics published this month, Arizona sportsbooks took in $16.5 million in gross sports betting revenue throughout April’s wagers, while the state earned roughly $1.6 million in taxes related to sports betting.

While the figures show a significant drop in handle compared to the previous month, it’s important to note that April is typically a slow month for sports betting. This can be attributed to the lack of major sporting events taking place during this time. For example, the NCAA men’s basketball tournament (March Madness) is a huge contributor to March’s handle but comes to an end in April.

Looking at the year-to-date numbers, it’s clear that Arizona sports betting is on track to have a very successful first year. By the end of April, the handle is nearly $two billion ($1879.61 million), and gross sports betting revenue has reached $142.67 million.

For the month of April, Online betting accounted for about 99.3% of the overall revenue from sports betting as it generated $509.5 million while retail sports betting generated $3.3 million only.

The state took in more than $1.6 million in revenue, which means that the year’s total now stands at over $6.1 million. The state collects an 8% tax on retail wagers and a 10% duty on mobile app bets.

In March, DraftKings took the most wagers again, with $155.9 million in online bets, slightly ahead of FanDuel with $152.5 million in combined online and retail wagers while BetMGM came third with $100.6 million in internet betting.

In terms of total revenue, FanDuel was far and away the leader, with $16.3 million in combined online and retail income, ahead of BetMGM and DraftKings with $7.7 million and $1.5 million online revenue, respectively.