The New York State Gaming Commission reported $192.6 million in sports betting revenue for April on Friday, a slight year-over-year improvement and a solid uptick from March.
Sportsbooks had a collective sub-7% hold for the second time in four months in March, dragged down by a chalk-heavy NCAA Tournament. Operators were able to recoup some of those losses when popular public betting option Duke lost to Houston in the Final Four.
Additionally, the challenge of betting on the opening month of Major League Baseball likely absorbed any impact that popular golfer Rory McIlroy may have had on completing his personal Grand Slam with a victory at The Masters as month-over-month winnings climbed 18.8%.
Revenue was up 4.7% from last year, which lagged behind the 9.6% bump in handle, to $2.16 billion. Both handle and revenue ranked sixth all-time in Empire State history and resulted in an 8.9% hold for April.
While it was the first time this year that monthly handle did not increase at least 10% year-over-year, the $9.07 billion wagered through the first four months of 2025 is up 19.8% compared to 2024. Revenue has almost kept pace, having gone up 15.8% to $787.2 million as the 8.6% hold is three-tenths of a percentage point lower thus far.
Top 10 Monthly Post-PASPA Handles by State | State | Handle amount |
January 2025 | New York | $2,487,676,801 |
March 2025 | New York | $2,445,290,864 |
October 2024 | New York | $2,329,400,447 |
December 2024 | New York | $2,289,276,065 |
November 2024 | New York | $2,273,599,387 |
APRIL 2025 | New York | $2,158,082,655 |
November 2023 | New York | $2,122,331,713 |
September 2024 | New York | $2,079,869,073 |
December 2023 | New York | $2,053,736,710 |
October 2023 | New York | $2,017,133,483 |
The state collected $98.3 million in tax revenue, putting the all-time total above $3 billion. All but $4.2 million of those levies have come since New York launched mobile sports betting in January 2022.
FanDuel rights itself, but year-over-year figures lag
FanDuel bounced back from a sub-7% hold in March, its first since February 2022, with a 10.3% win rate more commonly expected of the mobile juggernaut. It contributed to $84.8 million in winnings from $822.5 million worth of wagers placed.
Its market share of mobile handle among the nine operators jumped nearly three percentage points from March to 38.2% as action increased by 5.4%. Revenue, though, was still down 6.9% from April 2024 as the hold last year was 1.3 percentage points higher.
Eternal rival DraftKings had an opposite outcome: Year-over-year handle declined 1.3%, but revenue rose 5.8% to $66.8 million on the strength of a 9.2% win rate. Despite April’s slight slowdown in betting to $727.3 million, DraftKings’ 2025 handle of $3.19 billion is 21.8% higher than the first four months of 2024. It has contributed to an 11.3% increase in winnings to $263 million.
Fanatics again held off BetMGM and Caesars for third in revenue, reaping $12.5 million from $175.7 million handle. It was the third consecutive month Fanatics eclipsed an 8% market share for mobile handle, with wagering up 137% from last year when it was in the early stages of moving beyond the transition from predecessor PointsBet.
ESPN BET had its highest market share to date in terms of monthly handle percentage since launching last September, but the $56 million handle represented only 2.6% of the $2.15 billion wagered online. The beleaguered sportsbook of PENN Entertainment finished with $3 million in revenue as its 5.4% hold marked the third time in seven full months ESPN BET failed to attain a 6% win rate.
Month | Fanatics Handle | Market Share Percentage | ESPN BET Handle | Market Share Percentage |
October 2024 | $178,433,128 | 7.69% | $40,798,959 | 1.76% |
November 2024 | $170,167,303 | 7.51% | $38,968,880 | 1.72% |
December 2024 | $171,605,058 | 7.52% | $48,656,604 | 2.13% |
January 2025 | $194,103,074 | 7.82% | $59,218,686 | 2.39% |
February 2025 | $160,473,285 | 8.12% | $43,262,494 | 2.19% |
March 2025 | $207,454,432 | 8.50% | $53,856,774 | 2.21% |
April 2025 | $175,657,629 | 8.16% | $56,047,486 | 2.60% |
BetMGM continued its steady 2025, collecting $11.2 million in winnings with a 7.3% hold on $154.1 million worth of wagers. The operator has reached eight figures in revenue all four months this year, its longest such streak in New York, and year-to-date revenue is up 77.6% from last year. That percentage is somewhat inflated because of the hammering it absorbed from Super Bowl LVIII wagering in February 2024, which led to BetMGM coming out just $580,224 ahead for the month.
Another rough month for del Lago puts retailers in the red
New York’s four commercial retail sportsbooks combined for their third net loss in the last five months as bettors came out $88,620 ahead on $4.8 million handle. Resorts World was the best among the quartet with $28,588 in revenue and a 7.2% hold, while Rivers and Tioga Downs had sub-2% holds and combined for just $25,636 in revenue.
Del Lago Resort was the reason for the red ink, paying out $142,844 above its $1.4 million in accepted bets. It was del Lago’s third six-figure monthly loss in the last seven months. The Waterloo-based sportsbook has made less than $85,000 in 2025 and entered May with a 1.5% win rate against $5.5 million handle.