Arizona sportsbooks brought a fitting end to the 2023 calendar year with regards to sports betting in the United States — posting a monthly record revenue haul after the state’s Department of Gaming reported $67.7 million in gross revenue before any deductions were counted.
Operator winnings easily surpassed the previous high of $60.1 million in September, and the top three all-time totals in 28 months of wagering all occurred in the final four months of 2023. The strong close to the calendar year pushed gross revenue to $557.4 million, up 17.8% compared to 2022 as the 8.5% hold was up nearly two-thirds of a percentage point.
Handle was a robust $693.3 million, up 21.1% compared to the final month of 2022 but 2.8% off November’s record $713.6 million. Arizona sportsbooks accepted more than $6.57 billion worth of bets in 2023, up 8.9% from 2022 when it edged over $6 billion.
The state was eligible to tax $48.3 million in adjusted gross revenue, also an all-time monthly high, as the state coffers received $4.8 million in tax receipts from December action. The $34.8 million in tax revenue collected was $5.9 million more than 2022 and put the all-time total at $69.6 million.
Arizona’s report capped a record year of sports wagering nationwide that featured more than $121 billion handle and more than $10.8 billion in known gross revenue. The 9.1% hold was up more than one full percentage point compared to 2022, while state tax revenue totaled $2.15 billion.
FanDuel raises the revenue bar yet again
FINAL 2023 #SportsBetting handle by state (1/3)
TOP 101 NY ~$19.2B
2 NJ $11.97B
3 Illinois $11.62B
4 Nevada $8.26B
5 Penn. $7.68B
6 Ohio $7.67B
7 ARIZONA $6.57B
8 Virginia $5.59B
9 Colorado $5.56B
10 Mass. $4.97B#SportsBettingX #GamblingX— Chris Altruda (@AlTruda73) February 26, 2024
Arizona has been one of the few states where FanDuel has not been able to exert its customary dominance over the betting public on a month-by-month basis. Though the mobile juggernaut did not post a 10% hold in the Grand Canyon State for 2023 — barely falling short at 9.8% — FanDuel set a state monthly record for gross revenue in December at $29.1 million. That blew by its previous standard of $25.1 million in November 2022 as FanDuel finished with $226.7 million in winnings against $2.3 billion handle.
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DraftKings was a relatively close second, topping $20 million in revenue for the third time in the final four months of 2023, crafting a win rate of 9% as it accepted $228.5 million worth of wagers. That was enough to edge its full-year handle over $2 billion.
The two sportsbooks were separated by less than $288,000 in promotional bonuses and credits in 2023, with FanDuel’s $64.8 million outlay taking the top spot. But it had a year-over-year increase of only 25.4% while DraftKings’ $64.5 million spend was a 55.1% increase versus 2022.
BetMGM took the final podium spots in revenue and handle with ease, fashioning a 10.5% hold as it kept $8.7 million in gross winnings from $82.7 million handle. It also had a notable pullback in promotional spend compared to 2022: Its $39.1 million was a 37.1% decline from 2022, while the $901.7 million in accepted bets represented a 15.9% downturn.
Caesars ($56.8 million) had enough to hold off ESPN BET ($53 million) for the No. 4 spot in handle as the former had a 14.6% dip from November while the latter reported a 35.7% increase. ESPN BET garnered 7.7% of the $685.1 million mobile handle in December, above its first-year target of 7%.
It had a 5.7% hold in claiming $3 million in gross revenue and spent at least $2.9 million in promotional credits as it failed to generate any taxable winnings for the second consecutive month. Those deductions, though, were down 24% versus November. Caesars had a 6.8% win rate in winning $3.8 million, while its $908,000 promotional spend was less than one-third that of ESPN BET.
Desert Diamond was tops among local mobile sportsbooks for both December and 2023 as the Tuscon-based operator close out the year with $414,000 in winnings from $7.4 million handle for a 5.6% hold.
It capped a breakthrough year as Desert Diamond’s $198.7 million in accepted bets was nearly a seven-fold increase from the $28.6 million handle generated in 2022. Three monthly losses — two of them more than $920,000 — contributed to a revenue haul of almost $5 million for the year and a 2.5% win rate. Both figures were enough to place sixth among mobile operators.
DraftKings book at TPC Scottsdale gives retail bounce
Retail handle hit an all-time monthly high of $8.2 million in December, with DraftKings’ brick-and-mortar sportsbook at TPC Scottsdale accounting for almost one-third of that amount at $2.7 million. It notched a 13.5% hold to reap $368,000 and generated $5.9 million worth of wagers in the two-plus months since launch.
The $790,000 in gross revenue from the 15 retail sportsbooks statewide was the second-highest in 28 months of betting in Arizona, trailing only the $801,000 claimed in February 2022. The $5.2 million in operator winnings was up 46.4% versus 2022, and the $63.3 million handled in person was up 26.1%.
