Early Data Suggests New York Mobile Sports Betting Had A Fast Start
Early data out of New York indicates the Empire State’s recent mobile sports betting launch was unprecedented. This column will delve into what we know so far, and what the future looks like for New York and New Jersey.
The US online sports betting market has four crown jewels, California, Texas, Florida, and New York. Thus far, only one, New York, has legalized and launched mobile betting – Florida briefly had mobile betting, but a judicial order put a stop to it.
The New York sports betting experiment is in its infancy, having launched on Saturday, January 8, the most anticipated launch since New Jersey in August 2018.
So, what has the mobile betting experience been like in New York? We don’t have any official revenue figures yet, but Gov. Kathy Hochul did provide a window into the early numbers.
GeoComply also has some answers.
Positive Early Signs
In a press release issued on January 18, GeoComply, which handles geolocation targeting for the legal US online gambling industry, relayed the following bits of data:
- 1.2 million accounts active in NY, with 878,000 unique players – more than NJ and PA combined over the same period.
- 770,840 or 87.8% of NY players are brand new to regulated online sports betting – never before seen in GeoComply’s systems.
- New Yorkers are mostly loyal to one sportsbook so far, with an average of 1.36 accounts per player.
- New York geolocation transactions* this weekend (17.9 million), exceeded transactions from launch weekend (17.2 million).
GeoComply also provided Betting USA with some additional data, including a breakdown of mobile and desktop transactions. According to GeoComply, desktop transactions accounted for just 2% of all recent geolocation transactions. The percentage of desktop users is much higher than 2%, as mobile users require more geolocation pings, but this does indicate a trend towards mobile and the need for well-designed, user-friendly apps.
“The momentum of New York’s sports betting launch has continued and it is mostly home-grown,” Lindsay Slader, Managing Director of Gaming at GeoComply, summarized in the press release. “The vast majority of users are brand new to regulated sports betting in the US. The data tell us that New Yorkers are dumping illegal sportsbooks for the new legal options and operators are also excelling at attracting first-time bettors.”
Prepping for Launch
Like everything related to online gambling, providing geolocation services in a new market isn’t as simple as “flipping a switch,” as New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement Director David Rebuck is fond of saying.
GeoComply works with regulators and operators to set up exclusion zones. These zones vary from state to state and include government buildings, schools, tribal reservations, and parishes/counties like Louisiana.
There are also weeks of field tests to ensure everything is working correctly.
Per GeoComply:
“We estimate 640 hours of prep from GeoComply for the launch of the NY market from an on-location perspective. This metric includes the many feet-on-the-ground field testers (from ferry riders to toll bridge drivers) who worked to solidify our product flows, analysis of population centers, configuring systems logic, and addressing high-risk border sensitivities.”
And What About New Jersey?
One of the big questions is how the New York launch will impact New Jersey sports betting?
According to GeoComply data:
- Only 9.3% of NY players have placed bets previously in NJ, easing cannibalization concerns.
- New Jersey is unfazed; averaged 12.6 million geolocation transactions* the two weekends before NY launch and 13.1 million the two weekends since launch.
“New York hasn’t failed to dazzle us, but we are also impressed by the sustained growth of the overall sports betting industry. We can’t wait to share how many more GeoComply data records are broken from now through the Super Bowl,” Slader said in the press release.
“New Jersey didn’t flinch amidst the New York whirlwind,” Slader told Betting USA. “It’s an amazing testament to what it’s doing and what it’s built.”
This debt of gratitude to New Jersey also extends to the online casino front. A recent Eilers & Krejcik Gaming report noted that Michigan online casinos surpassed $1 billion in revenue in Year 1, while it took New Jersey online casinos eight years to surpass $1 billion.
But as Slader notes, “if it took them eight years to build up to what Michigan sportsbooks can do in year one, that was eight years of refining product and navigating the regulated US industry. The overnight success of New York and other states is because of the work New Jersey has done over the years.”
Steve Ruddock is the content director for BettingUSA and the Editor-in-Chief of Gaming Law Review.
Steve has covered the legal and legislative developments in the US gambling sector for more than a decade for online and print publications.
