Michigan’s online sports betting market experienced growth in August as the state recorded spending of $192m. This raises the state’s total from online and retail wagering for the year past $2bn.
However, according to PlayMichigan, the state's increased take did not equate to a growth in revenue as the lack of football continued to slow online sports betting.
“August marks the beginning of the most important stretch of the year for sportsbooks,” said Eric Ramsey, analyst for the PlayUSA.com Network, which includes PlayMichigan.com. “It only takes a few college games, the NFL’s preseason and future bets to show the importance of football to the industry. But the small number of games in August is merely a precursor for the next four months.”
The total take of $192.3m is a modest 2.3% increase from the $188m that state saw in July.
In total, online sportsbooks have brought in $2.2bn this year, with $189m in gross gaming revenue. Of that revenue, $8.9m was raised in state and local taxes.
“The hot start after launching online betting in January was the key in hitting $2 billion in wagering this soon, but it is remarkable growth, no matter how you view it,” said Matt Schoch, lead analyst for PlayMichigan.com. “Tax revenue has been somewhat underwhelming so far. As the market continues to mature, and promotional spends begin to slow, hopefully tax revenue improves.”
The online sportsbook that led the market for August was DraftKings, which took $61.4m in wagers leading to gross gaming revenue of $4.4m. In second was FanDuel with $47.7m. BetMGM took third place and produced $3.9m in revenue, down from $5m in June.
Following the top three were Barstool, PointsBet, BetRivers and FoxBet.
“Football is not only the main draw for most existing bettors, it is also the primary vehicle for each sportsbook to grow its customer base,” Schoch added. “The promotional offerings and seemingly wall-to-wall advertising that we’ve already seen shows how aggressive Michigan’s operators are and will continue to be over the next couple months.”
