Browse articles by topic

PA igaming revenue growth continues into May

News

Pennsylvania’s online gaming revenue has once again grown strongly month-over-month, while sports betting revenue has significantly increased from April 2020. 

With no land-based casino gaming, however, revenue was significantly down year-on-year, falling 79.0% to $61.0m. Igaming accounted for $55.8m of the total, up 29.7% month-on-month. With the vertical going live in July 2019, there are not yet any prior year figures to compare it with. 

Figures from the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board (PGCB) reveal that this broke down to $12.4m from table games, up 18.4% from April, with the vast majority – $38.8m – coming from online slots.

Poker, which is only offered by PokerStars operating under Mount Airy’s license, fell 12.5% to $4.6m, however. 

Looking at the breakdown by operator, Rivers Casino Philadelphia continued to lead the market with revenue of $17.6m, up 28.3%. This set it further ahead of the competition after its closest challenger, Mount Airy, reported only marginal month-on-month growth, to $10.9m.

Valley Forge, partnered with FanDuel, closed the gap on Mount Airy, with revenue rising 1.2% to $8.0m. Parx Casino, meanwhile, climbed back into fourth, with a 67.1% increase in revenue taking its total to $6.9m, pushing Penn National Gaming’s HollywoodCasino.com back to fifth.

DraftKings, which also operating under a Penn National license, saw casino revenue grow strongly in its first full month of activity. Having launched on April 29, revenue leapt from $29,416 to $3.7m.

Turning to sports betting, amounts wagered rose 68.4% to $77.5m, from which operators held $4.8m. This marked a significant improvement on April’s figures. 

Valley Forge and FanDuel led the way with revenue of $2.5m, up 49.5% month-over-month. This set it ahead of Meadows and DraftKings, with revenue of $908,635. Rivers Philadelphia followed in third, with revenue of $457,952, while Mount Airy, under which Fox Bet operates, came in fourth with $351,876.

Fantasy contests contributed an additional $318,840 in revenue, down 82.3% compared to the prior year, but up 90.6% from April.

June’s figures will once again include a contribution from land-based casinos, with three of Pennsylvania’s 12 casinos – Meadows, Rivers Pittsburgh and Lady Luck Casino Nemacolin – having reopened at the time of writing. A further three are to reopen in the coming week, with dates for the other six to be determined based on Governor Tom Wolf’s county-by-county reopening plan.

The venues will be required to operate at reduced capacity, with social distancing measures in place throughout the properties, and poker rooms remaining shuttered for the time being.