Mobile sports betting was made legal in April of 2021 by Governor Cuomo when he signed the state’s budget. The New York Gaming Commission is currently seeking bids from online and mobile sports platforms and betting services to award licenses. This is colossal leap in the right direction for a state such as New York where sports have a long history.
A Rich History
New York has a rich sporting history, after all it is the home to many famous sporting teams such as:
- The New York Giants (NFL)
- The New York Jets (NFL)
- The New York Yankees (MLB)
- The New York Mets (MLB)
- The New York Knicks (NBA)
- The Brooklyn Nets (NBA)
- New York Rangers (NHL)
- New York Islanders (NHL)
- New Jersey Devils (NHL)
- New York Liberty (WNBA)
- New York Red Bulls (MLS)
- New York City FC (MLS)
It would therefore make lots of sense for New York to have mobile sports betting. For example, you only have to look at sports betting in Indiana which has been a huge success as an indicator to its potential in the big apple. Indiana has seen a colossal handover of $3 billion throughout the last 12 months. Indiana has a population of roughly 6.5 billion people, whereas New York has almost double that at population 12.9 billion. You can only imagine the size of the handover that the state is missing out on by not already implementing mobile sports betting.
Current Betting Allowed In New York
Betting apps such as DraftKings are currently illegal in the state of New York. The only way you can currently bet in New York is to go into one of four licensed commercial upstate casinos, or alternatively the one which is operated by an Upstate Indian nation. Once at one of these locations you can then place a bet in person at the casinos betting parlours, otherwise known as sportsbooks.
A Gap in the Market
With an estimated population of just over 20.4 million it would be a missed money opportunity to not allow online mobile sports betting in the state of New York. As mentioned above, sports betting in Indiana has been doing phenomenal over the past year. Take baseball for example which skyrocketed by taking a $63 million lead in betting action throughout the month of July.
Take the mobile sports betting app DraftKings, which has continued to lead the way in online sports betting throughout the state of Indiana and had a handle of over $63 million throughout the month of July alone, with their competitors FanDuel accounted for more than $54 million.
Pulling in these large revenues in a state with half population of somewhere like New York would surely mean that there is potential for large hand overs of revenue for these mobile sport betting apps when mobile betting eventually becomes fully legal in New York. This is a huge untapped market for mobile sports betting apps in New York.