The New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement reported $102.5 million in adjusted gross sports betting revenue for May as operators reaped the benefits of bettors’ failed parlays.
Revenue was up 30.2% compared to last year, and the 10.2% hold was up more than three-quarters of a percentage point.
It was the ninth time sportsbooks in the state collectively reached nine figures in monthly revenue, with eight of those occasions coming in the last 21 months.
It was also the second time this year sportsbooks posted a double-digit hold and the 13th time in 84 months of wagering. The 23.09% win rate on parlays was just off February’s year-high of 23.14% and marked the seventh time in 14 months it was above 20%.
Despite the May windfall, year-to-date revenue is down 10.3% at $460.2 million.
For the first time in 2025, year-over-year handle was higher than the same month in 2024, as the $1.01 billion in accepted wagers represented a 20.5% increase. That lessened the year-to-date decline to 12.6% at $5.25 billion. May marked the 26th time the Garden State posted a billion-dollar monthly handle, trailing only New York (38) in the post-PASPA era.
The state collected $13.2 million in tax receipts, and the $59.3 million through the first five months of 2025 is running $7.2 million below last year’s pace. The state legislature has been debating outgoing Gov. Phil Murphy’s ask to raise the online sports betting tax from 15% to 25%.
Maybe there were parlay flyers on the Knicks
It is possible New Jersey sportsbooks gained some revenue via parlays when the New York Knicks were eliminated from the NBA playoffs on May 31. Year-over-year revenue on the multi-leg wagers surged 53.4% to $72.7 million, the fifth-highest monthly total in state history:
| Month | Parlay Revenue | Hold |
| January 2024 | $98,394,040 | 19.93% |
| September 2024 | $85,413,426 | 24.22% |
| January 2025 | $80,117,595 | 20.97% |
| November 2024 | $73,225,568 | 18.62% |
| MAY 2025 | $72,713,642 | 23.09% |
That pushed year-to-date parlay revenue to $304.2 million. But the rough March in which the house had a meager 9.9% win rate — 8.8 percentage points lower than the current 18.7% hold for 2025 — has contributed to a 1.2% decline compared to the first five months of 2024.
That parlay success also ran counter to single-market wagering on basketball, where the 3.3% win rate resulted in just $8.5 million in winnings from $257.5 million worth of wagers. That continued an impressive run of the public faring respectably against the house when it came to basketball betting: It was the eighth straight month with a sub-4% hold, and the win rate in that span is just 3.3% as operators have claimed only $83.3 million from $2.51 billion handle.
The operators did make notable gains in baseball revenue, with the $11.6 million a nearly four-fold increase from May 2024. Operators combined for a 5.5% hold, with the $211.5 million handle up 15.5%.
FanDuel easily tops the mobile revenue list
When there is parlay success, FanDuel is usually one of the primary beneficiaries regardless of state. While the NJDGE does not publish handle and revenue figures for operators by sport category, the $44.3 million in total revenue FanDuel accrued for the month represented an increase of 20.8%.
DraftKings was a clear No. 2 at $28.3 million. Fanatics again nailed down the final podium spot, but its $6.2 million in winnings was a mixed bag of sorts. It was more than three times higher than last year but also less than half its $12.9 million claimed in April.
England-based bet365 had its best monthly haul since individual operator figures were first published in January 2024, coming up just short of $6 million, and ESPN Bet did likewise to complete the top five. The 87.9% spike compared to May 2024 for the embattled Penn Entertainment-run sportsbook resulted in more than $4.9 million in winnings.
