The Arizona Department of Gaming (ADG) released a report on the state’s market performance for August. The report shows that legal sports betting handle increased the month before the start of the football season, recording an 11 percent rebound in comparison to July 2023, but also a slightly lower hold than the prior month.

$358 Million Betting Handle:

As reported by the ADG, sports betting operators accepted $358.8 million in bets during the month, which is 11% more than the July 2023 performance. Operators reportedly paid $327.1 million to players and kept $30.8 million in gross gaming revenues. Despite the higher handle than in July, operators kept less money in August to see a hold percentage of 8.6% against July’s 10.6% hold. The reason for a lower hold in the circumstances of a higher handle might be attributed to a higher amount won by players against increased operator costs to record the increased handle.

Lower Hold For Operators And State:

There may be other factors as well, but all of them combined incurred a lower hold for the state generating tax revenues from the operator’s handle. The source reports that 13 of 17 online betting operators were profitable in August 2023, reporting a combined profit of $20.7 million. Also, 11 of 13 retail wagering facilities aggregated a total profit of around $647,000. The state of Arizona consequently generated $2.1 million in tax revenues. As July tax revenues were reported at $2.6 million, the state saw a 20% lower tax bill in August.

Overall Arizona bets in August were predominantly placed with two leading operators therefore FanDuel and DraftKings accounted for 64% of Arizona’s sports wagering operations. As reported by Covers, DraftKings’ online sports betting operations circulated a handle of $115.5 million in August versus $102.3 million rolled out in July to see an 11.5% month-on-month handle increase. FanDuel arrived almost at the same handle having accepted  $115.1 million in online wagers, and $2.5 million in retail bets. The third busiest operator was BetMGM with $50.4 million in handle.

64% Share of FanDuel and DraftKings:

These three operators aggregated a handle of around $280 million with the other ten operators recording a total of around $80 million or an average of around $8 million each. Also, DraftKings and FanDuel accounted for 64% of the total handle of $358 million recorded by the Arizona betting industry in August 2023. These two operators thus confirmed their leading position in the regulated Arizona market which seems to accelerate with the beginning of the sports season. For this reason, one may expect that the next report (pdf) from the Arizona Department of Gaming will bring even higher figures.