With $95M In March Revenue, MI Online Gambling Is Hot On PA’s Heels – OnlinePokerReport.com

Dreamstime/Corepics Vof

Michigan iGames didnt get going until this January. So Pennsylvania gamblers had a long head start on creating revenue for the commonwealth. Although for the second straight month, Michigans online gambling revenue ($95.1 million in March) rivaled Pennsylvanias ($98 million), even though that states online casinos launched in July 2019.

The numbers from the Michigan Gaming Control Board (MGCB) released today show the states online gambling gross receipts for March total $95.1 million. In addition, the states sports betting receipts reached $32.3 million meaning online betting in the more general sense brought $127.4 million into state coffers.

Adjusted to deduct bettors free play incentives, Michigans actual online revenue in March was $107.7 million. So it remains behind Pennsylvanias $124 million, but is catching up quickly.

During the shorter month of February, Michigans adjusted $75 million in online casino revenue also rivaledPennsylvanias $78 million.

Its possible Michigans online gamblers may soon help speed past revenue from Pennsylvanias online casino players, despite Michigans lower population. Pennsylvania houses nearly 13 million people, while Michigan has just shy of 10 million.

Perhaps its because Michigan synchronized its launch of online casino, online poker and online sports betting. Maybe its because Michigan has a lower tax rate on slots than Pennsylvania and its operators may feel more inclined to market the product. It could even be simple luck.

Meanwhile, some operators seem to be getting the hang of Michigan online casino wagering better than others. Of Michigans 12 license holders, the top three generated $66.3 million in online casino revenue, or 70% of the states total.

Using the adjusted income, Michigan saw more than $88.7 million in online casino revenue in March. While that far exceeds the February total of $75 million, that was a shorter month.

Its even less of a fair comparison to put Michigans January revenue next to Marchs. That was its first month of operation and was thus only 10 days long. To get a real sense of the markets performance, its necessary to use a daily average.

After deducting promotional expenses, the daily average for March was $2.9 million vs. Februarys $2.7 million. Michigans online casino revenue appears to be in good shape. The full month revenue marks an 18% increase from February, as tallied MGCB Executive Director Richard S. Kalm. Taken as a daily average, it is still an improvement of around 7%.

iGaming taxes and payments generated $17.3 million for Michigan. There is a further $535,930 from online sports betting earmarked to help Detroit, the states K-12 schools, economic development and tribal communities.

As was the case in February, BetMGM, FanDuel and DraftKings are dominating the marketplace in Michigan. They generated $66.3 million of the online casino totals in March. The nine other operators combined generated $28.8 million less than half of the iGaming gross receipts of the top three.

What may add a bit of drama come July is FanDuels IPO.

In addition to possibly helping licensee MotorCity Casino be more competitive with MGM Grand Detroit, the IPO could add confusion about Odawa casinos skin, Fox Bet. As part of the negotiations with media partner Fox before the IPO, primary FanDuel owner Flutter may be trying to merge Fox Bet with FanDuel to eliminate some competition.

Meanwhile, for the sake of argument, lets take a look at that scenario if it had played out in March. FanDuels licensee MotorCity and Fox Bets Odawa adjusted revenues for March added together are $29 million. MGM Grands BetMGM brought in $31 million. All of thats interesting, but DraftKings would still reign at $35 million with Bay Mills Indian Community.

Even appointed officials arent immune to sports puns. Kalm credits March Madness basketball with adding a bounce to the sports betting handle. Bets received increased 19.1% from February to March.

In dollar terms, handle increased by $60 million, month over month. Here too, we can look at the daily average to confirm that the gains are real. Handle for March worked out to an average of $11.6 million per day, which is again a7%improvement over Februarys pace of $10.8 million.

However, Marchs $359.5 million handle isnt the only way to analyze Michigans sports gambling prowess. Revenue is the other piece of the puzzle.

There too, Michigan showed that its got game, posting $32.3 million in gross sports betting receipts. A big chunk of that got paid out in promotional free bets however, leaving $19 million total after that adjustment.

On that front at least, Pennsylvania performed far better in March, with $26 million in sports betting revenue.

However, Michigan is really only competing against itself. Considering the state saw negative revenue from this vertical in January, sports betting is doing far better than it did straight out of the gate.

For readers who want to do their own research about Michigans online casino revenue, heres a handy chart. The figures given are taxable revenue, which is adjusted from gross revenue by deducting promotional expenses.

See the rest here:

With $95M In March Revenue, MI Online Gambling Is Hot On PA's Heels - OnlinePokerReport.com