Maryland Posts Record $550 Million Handle As ESPN BET Debuts

ESPN BET‘s impact was notable in its first weeks of Maryland sports betting, contributing to a record $550.7 million worth of accepted wagers in November from all mobile sportsbooks according to the state’s Lottery and Gaming agency.

The handle topped the previous standard of $497.1 million set last December during the first full month bettors had access to sports betting apps. The number of operators in the 12 months since has climbed from seven to 12, but ESPN BET — which launched in multiple states Nov. 14 — proved a bigger contributor than most with an aggressive launch in the Old Line State.

Its $33.3 million handle in about half the month ranked fourth among mobile books, but is inflated to a degree by its $13 million promotional outlay — 3.5 times the amount PENN Entertainment provided in promotions and bonus offers during the 12 months the company operated in the state under different branding. While ESPN BET accounted for 6.2% of the record $533.3 million mobile handle, it made a bigger splash on the bottom line with $4.2 million in gross revenue, equating to a 12.6% hold that is the best of any month PENN has been in Maryland.

ESPN BET represented 10.3% of the $40.5 million in gross revenue among mobile operators, but the challenge now is sustaining such a win rate and market share without flooding the zone with promotional offers. In contrast, mobile titans FanDuel and DraftKings combined to offer $12.2 million worth of goodies to its bettors as the trio, plus Fanatics, accounted for the overwhelming majority of the $28.6 million in promotional offers from online apps in November. FanDuel also set an all-time state high for single-operator monthly handle in November at $241.7 million.

November was a good month for bettors, who limited operators to a collective 7.6% hold on gross revenue — the lowest of the mobile era. The state was able to levy its 15% tax rate on $21.3 million of the $41.6 million in gross revenue claimed, resulting in an inflow of $3.2 million into tax coffers.

Maryland became the 14th state to surpass $5 billion in all-time handle, with more than $4 billion of it coming this year. It also topped $600 million in all-time operator gross sports betting revenue with November’s results.

ESPN BET breakdown

The challenge of ESPN BET to gain market share in Maryland and elsewhere is two-fold — it needs to cut into the footholds established by leaders FanDuel and DraftKings, and it also must compete with BetMGM, Caesars, and Fanatics to lead that second tier. It can be argued the second part of the mission was accomplished in the first partial month, as ESPN BET came within $3 million of BetMGM for third among mobile operators, topped Caesars by nearly $8 million, and generated $14.3 million handle more than Fanatics.

In future months, the challenge for ESPN BET will be to get the percentage of promotional offers versus handle into single digits, which all the major operators have done. November marked the second consecutive month Fanatics accomplished that objective, falling from 9.5% in October.

Fanatics’ spend in November, though, remained aggressive enough that it posted a monthly loss of over $800,000 in adjusted gross revenue. Bettors limited Fanatics to a 2% hold and $380,000 in gross revenue, and Fanatics has accumulated total AGR loss of $3.4 million since taking its first bets in May thanks to a promotional outlay of $7.7 million.

ESPN BET, meanwhile, will now start trying to whittle down an AGR of minus-$8.9 million.

FanDuel failed to make hay with its record-setting handle as the mobile juggernaut was held to a single-digit hold for the first time in 13 months of accepting bets in the Old Line State. The 7.8% win rate still produced $18.8 million in gross revenue, enough to lead all online operators, but it was well off the previous low win rate of 11.4% in September. FanDuel also became the first digital book in Maryland to clear $2 billion in all-time handle.

DraftKings also had its best all-time month for handle at $165.9 million, and its 8.1% hold resulted in gross revenue totaling $13.4 million. Both FanDuel and DraftKings had month-over-month declines in promotional spend, with FanDuel down 20.3% and DraftKings down 18%.

BetMGM was also hold to an all-time low for monthly hold, dipping to 7.2% as it claimed $2.6 million from $36 million worth of accepted wagers. It was just the second time BetMGM failed to notch a double-digit hold, also falling short at 9.7% in July.

Caesars rounded out the top five in handle at $25.5 million, but its win rate of less than 2.5% meant it collected just $631,000 in gross revenue. SuperBook was the only mobile operator to report a loss for gross revenue in November as bettors came out $63,730 ahead on the $556,342 worth of accepted bets. It was the second monthly loss for SuperBook since launching in April, an opening month in which it had a loss of $1,720.

Revenue dips as bettors do better on parlays

The simple explanation for the 29.1% drop in revenue from October despite the 14% increase in handle is improved results by the betting public when it came to parlays. Handle for the multi-leg wagers reached an all-time high of $200.9 million in November, but the hold went in the opposite direction and landed at an all-time low of 13%. The $26-million plus in operator winnings still represented 62.5% of the overall gross revenue in November.

Revenue from single-event NFL wagering ranked second among the 12 categories provided by Maryland Lottery and Gaming at $5.3 million, with operators posting a middling 6.5% hold on $82.4 million. The opening month of college basketball fell on the house’s side as it posted a hold just over 10% to claim $4.5 million. Revenue from pro basketball ($3.4 million) and tennis ($3 million) rounded out the top five. The catch-all “other” category, which includes boxing and MMA in Maryland, had a loss of $1.7 million on $29.2 million handle.