New York online sports betting revenue vaults 34.3% in March
Revenue for online sports books in New York State leapt 34.3% in March, despite a 4.6% handle slump. Books won US$217.3 million on handle of US$2.3 billion. Hold was 9.3%.
FanDuel led all books in win, handle and hold percentage. It recovered US$87.4 million from wagers of US$811.2 million, for a hold of 10.8%.
DraftKings held at 10.2%, realizing win of US$77.5 million. Its handle share was US$758.4 million.
The loosest hold belonged to BetMGM: 6.1%. It won US$11.7 million off of wagers on the order of US$193.3 million.
Despite lower handle, in the amount of US$152 million, Caesars Sportsbook won US$14.2 million. Its hold percentage was a state-average 9.3%.
TheScore Bet brought up the rear with revenue of US$4.1 million, from handle of US$44.3 million. It held at 9.3%.
Fanatics Sportsbook and all other operators in the Empire State combined for win of US$22.3 million, holding at 6.1% clip. Their handle totaled US$369.2 million.
David McKee is an award-winning journalist who has three decades of experience covering the gaming industry.
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The Backstory
Why March mattered in New York
March is the industry’s annual stress test, and the latest New York results underscore why. The state’s revenue jump in March came even as betting volume wobbled, a reminder that operator hold — the percentage of wagers retained as win — can swing monthly outcomes more than raw handle. Other tallies for the month pointed to a surge in betting activity tied to college basketball, with March Madness lifting overall handle and reshuffling operator standings. A separate compilation showed online handle pushing to about $2.4 billion and revenue tracking differently, illustrating how cutoffs, adjustments and product mix can produce diverging reads of the same market.
Those crosscurrents are not new. Heading into March, New York had already demonstrated that larger pools of betting do not guarantee higher revenue. An alternative view of the period highlighted a month-to-month handle jump from February and a more modest revenue outcome, as detailed in a March handle update that put statewide volume around $2.4 billion. The variance from other snapshots reflects timing differences and the composition of bets, especially the prevalence of parlays, which tend to raise hold.
Context from late last year shows how quickly leaderboards and yields can change. In November, for instance, FanDuel dominated New York with about $1 billion in handle and more than $130 million in revenue as statewide hold hovered in the double digits. Just a few months later, the March college basketball window pulled operators into a tighter race on win and market share. The swing points to product, pricing and promotion strategies that are calibrated to marquee sports calendars — and that can move hold more than one or two percentage points either way.
For regulators and investors, the lesson is consistency: New York is reliably the country’s highest-volume online sports betting market, but month-to-month deltas in hold can dwarf changes in handle. That dynamic helps explain why operators can post revenue gains when betting volume slips, or miss on win even as wagers pile in.
It also sets the stage for spring and summer, when the sports calendar lightens and operators lean on baseball, soccer and futures to maintain engagement — typically at different hold profiles than football or March basketball.
A rivalry that defines the market
FanDuel and DraftKings continue to set New York’s pace, but March showed the race is not static. A detailed breakdown of the month’s leaders found that DraftKings edged FanDuel on both handle share and revenue during the tournament window, a first in more than a year. The shift coincided with a surge in betting volume and a lower average statewide hold, suggesting DraftKings converted traffic with competitive pricing and targeted parlay offerings while FanDuel’s edge narrowed.
That result contrasted with patterns seen late last year, when FanDuel’s November outperformance reflected superior parlay uptake and strong margins at scale. The rivalry’s month-to-month pendulum illustrates how sensitive share can be to sport-specific calendars, customer acquisition bursts and risk management tolerance.
The reshuffle also affected the second tier. In March’s rundown, Fanatics posted one of the strongest percentage revenue gains among mid-tier operators, while BetMGM held steady on a smaller base and Caesars pulled back. Such moves matter in a market with nine licensed operators, where incremental share shifts can translate into several million dollars of monthly revenue swings.
Taken together, the March flip hints at a more competitive spring, with promotions and product tweaks intensifying around the NBA and NHL playoffs. The top two remain entrenched, but the gap’s width — and the profitability that comes with it — is being actively contested.
Hold, not just handle, is the story
Operator hold drove March outcomes across markets. In New York’s tournament window, the average hold trended lower than in peak months, an effect consistent with higher straight-bet volume on basketball and sharper pricing. Still, operator-level spreads were wide, with some books outpacing peers by several points and others lagging.
A look across state lines offers a clean comparison. In Maryland, online books held 10.4% in March, producing a 30.5% revenue surge on only a small handle increase. FanDuel’s 12.1% hold there led the market, while DraftKings landed below that mark. The profile is familiar to New York, where FanDuel’s edge has often come from deeper same-game parlay penetration and disciplined risk controls, and where DraftKings’ surges tend to align with high-volume events and aggressive pricing.
New York’s operator mix magnifies the effect of hold dispersion. When a top-two book tightens margins or wins a higher share of parlays, statewide revenue can swing tens of millions of dollars even if total wagers are flat or down. Conversely, if market leaders lean into straight bets to drive volume or compete on price, statewide hold and revenue can compress even amid record handle.
These mechanics also help explain why smaller operators see volatile results. A single week of outlier outcomes — a popular team covering or a cluster of long-shot parlays hitting — can halve or double a monthly win rate on a thin base, reshaping leaderboards without signaling a durable trend.
Where the money goes
The stakes extend beyond operator scorecards. New York directs a majority of net sports betting proceeds to public purposes. In March, the nine-license lineup contributed about $82.5 million for education, according to one monthly cut, alongside earmarks for problem gambling education and treatment and youth sports grants. DraftKings alone sent roughly $31.9 million to the education fund that month, underscoring how share shifts at the top flow directly into state programs.
Those allocations tend to climb during marquee sports periods. But reliance on a few high-hold months can make receipts uneven, especially as operators adjust promotion levels and risk tolerance. That volatility is manageable at New York’s scale, yet it remains a budget planning consideration as lawmakers weigh market expansion, tax structures and responsible gambling investments.
With multiple operators tightening customer acquisition spend compared with the early days of launch, the state’s take increasingly depends on organic engagement and product innovation rather than outsized bonus offers. That places more weight on hold discipline, live betting experiences and parlay construction — the same levers driving March outcomes.
Signals from other states
Regional comps help separate structural trends from one-off outliers. Indiana’s March numbers show steady growth in mature markets even outside coastal hubs. The state’s online handle rose more than 11% year over year to about $540 million, with DraftKings and FanDuel combining for nearly two thirds of volume. Fanatics more than doubled its handle from a year earlier, signaling that the middle tier can gain ground with product focus and targeted acquisition.
Maryland’s March provided a textbook case of hold-driven revenue expansion, with a double-digit win rate powering a revenue pop on modest handle growth. That pattern rhymes with New York’s experience in high-hold months such as last November, while March’s New York read aligns more with lower-hold, high-volume dynamics typical of basketball-led calendars.
Across these states, the throughline is familiar: scale leaders set pricing and product tempos, parlay adoption drives margin, and calendar peaks test risk systems. March reaffirmed that playbook. It also hinted that the gap between the top tier and the rest can narrow quickly when promotions, pricing and sport mix line up.
As spring rolls on, watch for whether March’s reshuffle in New York persists into the playoffs and whether Fanatics’ momentum in states like Indiana translates into stickier share. The broader market remains on a growth track, but profitability will keep hinging on hold — and on who wins the small, cumulative battles inside live betting and same-game parlay markets.
