New York’s online sportsbooks accepted more than $2.4 billion in wagers in September, a monthly total about 5% higher than a year earlier and one of the largest in the state’s history. Operator revenue, however, fell to roughly $160 million as bettors retained a greater share of their stakes.
TheLines reported that the September handle was the sixth-highest monthly total recorded in New York and that the statewide hold was 6.7%, down more than 1.8 percentage points from the prior year. Operator revenue declined 17.8% year on year despite the higher betting volume.
As we reported on Oct. 18, New York’s mobile sportsbooks subsequently generated $63.3 million in revenue during NFL Week 6, when the statewide hold reached 10.3%.
FanDuel accepted $904.7 million in September wagers, up 14.5% from a year earlier, but its revenue fell 18% to $63.7 million. DraftKings accepted $840.1 million, its highest monthly handle of 2026, while revenue declined 16% to $56 million.
Fanatics’ handle rose 21.8% to $266.8 million, though its revenue dropped almost 30% to $14.4 million. Caesars accepted $152.7 million in bets, broadly unchanged from September 2025, and its winnings fell 27.4% to less than $8 million. Bally Bet and theScore Bet were the only two smallest operators to record year-on-year revenue gains.
The state collected $81.4 million in sports-betting tax receipts for the month. Nearly all of that came from online operators, which pay a 51% levy, while retail wagering contributed $64,100.
Retail sports-betting handle more than doubled from $2 million in August to $4.4 million in September. Retail gross gaming revenue reached an annual high of $641,500, although in-person sports-wagering remains a small part of the market: the state comptroller said it had generated $69 million in gross revenue through the end of fiscal 2026, less than 1% of the mobile total.
For the first six months of fiscal 2026-27, New York sports-betting handle reached nearly $12.6 billion, up 6.9% from the comparable period a year earlier. Gross sportsbook revenue fell 5.8% to $1.1 billion over the same period as the average hold declined from 10% to 8.8%, and sports-betting tax revenue was $565 million, $34.8 million below the prior fiscal-year pace.
The figures arrived amid a dispute over prediction markets. Legal gaming-sector representatives contend that federally regulated platforms divert bets from New York sportsbooks, while prediction-market operators say users trade with one another rather than wager against a house. The American Gaming Association has argued that such platforms reduce state tax revenue and offer illegal sports betting outside state and tribal frameworks.
New York officials have taken action against several prediction-market businesses, including Kalshi, Coinbase and Gemini. The state also sued Polymarket, alleging it operated unlicensed gambling and seeking to block its New York operations, fines and customer restitution. A Citizens analyst, Jordan Bender, took a different view, arguing that prediction markets and regulated sportsbooks can coexist and that aggressive promotion by prediction platforms could introduce more people to sports betting.
