35 percent hold for Pennsylvania operators as the Eagles fail to soar

While the majority of the state of Pennsylvania would have been sat head in hands as a Patrick Mahomes inspired Kansas City Chiefs defeated the Philadelphia Eagles, the states bookmakers were doing the exact opposite. According to the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board, state operators took a total of $85,413,189 in wagers, and pocketed revenue of $29,722,902 giving them a remarkable hold of around 35 percent.

Where could Pennsylvania residents wager? 

Pennsylvania residents were able to place wagers at 19 retail locations and through 14 different online wagering sites. This is the fourth year that PA residents were able to bet on the Super Bowl, and it continued its upwards trajectory.

What was the PA handle for Super Bowl LVII? 

Handle for both online and retail grew, with a 24 percent reported overall increase in wagering compared to last year’s fixture between the Los Angeles Rams and the Cincinnati Bengals. The full handle data is shown below, split by retail and online:

What was Pennsylvania’s GGR for Super Bowl LVII?

Where the data is vastly different, however, is the revenue generated by the commercial operators in the state of Pennsylvania. The data is below:

As shown above, the increase in GGR from $4,575,339 to $29,722,902 represented a staggering 549.6% increase in revenue.

When compared to the ‘mere’ 24% increase in handle, the change in hold is clear to see. Pre-match odds suggested the teams to be nearly even, with the Philadelphia Eagles marginal favorites to lift the Lombardi Trophy.

Other states Super Bowl results are yet to be released, but it’s safe to assume that given Philadelphia is in Pennsylvania and is the states’ main team, wagers heavily favored the Eagles. Therefore, when Mahomes and the Kansas City chiefs triumphed, the bulk of wagers in PA lost and bookmakers secured what’s surely record revenue from a single sporting event.

The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board also adds that per GeoComply, there were 793,000 online sports wagering accounts active during the Super Bowl. It also adds that GeoComply conducted 11.8 geolocation checks during the weekend to ensure that wagering was being conducted by individuals within Pennsylvania and were authorized to conduct wagering.

Pennsylvania borders six states, where online sports betting is legal in each and every one of them. Currently, only mobile sports betting in Delaware is not available to bettors. West Virginia punters can play casino online, and so too can people play online slots in New Jersey. New York online gaming is currently the talk of the town, given the size of the total addressable market and tax returns already generated from legal online sports betting in NY.