The decline in Pennsylvania sports wagers follows a national trend in July, a month when the American sports calendar precipitously slows down. Handle was still up 84.7% y-o-y.
Online wagers accounted for $275m, or 90.5%, of the July handle.
Gross gaming revenue was $27.5m, down 35.3% from June. Gross receipts generated $19.9m in taxable revenue, which led to $6.8m in state taxes and $397m in local share assessments.
FanDuel led the Pennsylvania online market with $107m in wagers and GGR from online bets led to $12.3m in GGR. Penn National Gaming’s Barstool Sportsbook was second in handle with $66.2m, resulting in GGR of $4m.
Rivers Philadelphia led retail sportsbooks with $5.9m in handle.
Pennsylvania does not release wagers by sport, but baseball was expected to make a large share of the July handle, as the state is home to the Pittsburgh Pirates and the Philadelphia Phillies. The Phillies have emerged as a potential MLB playoff contender, which should drive up wagers in August and September.
August also marks the return of preseason NFL games, which should offer another boost for Keystone State sportsbooks.
Meanwhile Pennsylvania’s online casinos and poker had another strong month as iGaming GGR rose to $105m, a 3.6% increase from June and a 52.9% improvement y-o-y.
Taxable revenue from online casinos and poker was $88.9m, which generated $38.2m in state and local taxes.
Penn National and its iGaming partners DraftKings, BetMGM, Barstool and Hollywood casinos led the market with $36.9m in revenue.
Caesars Entertainment, which launched its World Series of Poker platform in Pennsylvania on July 15, saw online poker of $242,000, right on the heels of Penn National/BetMGM at $290,000 but well behind market Mount Airy/PokerStars at $2m.
