End of Football Season Sees Michigan's February Sports Betting Handle Drop From January to February
Michigan is feeling the effects of no NFL or college football as its sports betting handle drops by 27% from January's numbers.
The post-football hangover for legal sports betting has come for the Wolverine State.
The Michigan Gaming Control Board announced a significant contraction in the state’s legal sports betting market.
Sports betting in Michigan saw $357.1 million in wagers last month, a 27% fall compared to the $490.8 million in January. On top of that, gross revenue from the sportsbooks came in at $23.1 million — a 32% decline — and that was before deductions, further hurting the state’s tax bill.
The bad news for the state was that while the sportsbooks saw less action, Michigan bettors improved their luck last month. Operators kept just 6.4% of the wagers made in February, a slight decline from the 6.8% in January. Hold percentage has dropped two months in a row after December’s 10.2%.
Michigan’s tax bill came out to $600,602, well short of January’s $1.1 million. This is the first sub-million tax receipt since the sports betting lows of July.
Retail standing tall over online sportsbooks
The loss in handle, revenue, etc in February came from the state’s massive pool of online sports betting sites, while the three retail casinos saw some positives in this month’s report.
While retail handle fell 20% compared to 27.5% from the online operators, their revenue tripled to $475,912, with tax revenue nearly doubling from $8,939 to $17,340.
Greektown Casino (Barstool) maintained its lead in on the retail side with $4.3 million in bets, MotorCity Casino (FanDuel) was close behind with $4.1 million, followed by MGM Grand Detroit (BetMGM) with $3.7 million handle.
On the online side, FanDuel was the most popular, taking in $122.7 million in bets (18% decline). DraftKings was second with $89.5 million (24% decline), and BetMGM was third with $62.6 million (44% decline).
All online operators above $2 million in handle saw their action decline in February vs. January, with just two of the 15 online sportsbooks seeing an increase in handle.
