Pennsylvania Sportsbooks Report Big Win for Super Bowl, Nevada Revises Revenue Numbers

Posted on: February 18, 2023, 04:47h. 

Last updated on: February 18, 2023, 04:47h.

Steve Bittenbender Read More
Expertise: Legislation, Sports Betting, Horse Racing.

The Philadelphia Eagles may not have won the Super Bowl last week, but the big game was a big winner for Pennsylvania sportsbooks.

Chiefs
Thousands of Kansas City Chiefs fans gather at Union Station in Kansas City, MO, on Wednesday to celebrate the team’s Super Bowl victory. Chiefs fans weren’t the only ones celebrating as Pennsylvania sportsbooks reported a 35.3% win rate on the bets they took on the game involving the Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles. (Image: Kansas City Chiefs/Twitter)

According to the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board (PGCB), sportsbooks and online wagering apps reported $29.7 million in expected revenues off bets on the game, which saw the Kansas City Chiefs knock off the Eagles thanks to a last-minute field goal.

Preliminary handle figures showed the state’s 19 brick-and-mortar sportsbooks and 14 online sites took $84.3 million in wagers. That represented a 24% increase from the $68 million bet last year when the Los Angeles Rams beat the Cincinnati Bengals.

Online wagering still dominated, as bettors placed 87.8% of the money wagered on the Super Bowl through state-licensed online sites.

Oddsmakers considered the game would be a close affair, with many sportsbooks making the Eagles a slight favorite. That meant a lot of Eagles’ bets went up in smoke thanks to the Chiefs’ outright win and helped produce an incredible 35.3% win rate for the sportsbooks.

Since Philadelphia is the largest city in Pennsylvania, it stands to reason most of the action went toward the Eagles. That helped increase the sportsbooks’ Super Bowl revenue by more than six-fold from last year’s $4.6 million.

Pennsylvania taxes sportsbook revenue at 36%, meaning the state will receive a $10.7 million cut on those winnings.

Data from GeoComply found that Pennsylvania online sports bettors had nearly 12 million of the more than 100 million geolocation checks the company processed across the country last weekend.

Nevada Adjusts Sportsbook Win Down by Half

While it was a big day for Pennsylvania sportsbooks, it turned out to be less successful for ones in Nevada than had been previously announced.

After initially reporting last Monday that Nevada sportsbooks won more than $11.2 million, the Nevada Gaming Control Board (NGCB) issued a new statement Wednesday cutting that figure by more than half.

During a further analysis of unaudited Super Bowl wagering data submitted to the Board this year, it was discovered that win amounts had been incorrectly reported to the Board for the past two Super Bowls,” the NGCB statement read.

The actual amount won by the state’s 185 licensed sportsbooks for last week’s game was slightly less than $5.5 million, although that figure remains subject to NGCB auditing.

The Super Bowl win total for the 2022 Super Bowl fell from the $15.4 million reported last year to $11.1 million.

The adjustments did not affect handles for either year. This year’s Super Bowl generated a handle of nearly $153.2 million, compared to the $179.8 million wagered last year. The 14.8% decline can be partially attributed to William Hill’s sportsbooks and apps shutting down in the first half of this year’s game.

Handle Down, Revenue Up in New Jersey

Meanwhile, the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement announced Thursday that the state’s 12 retail sportsbooks and 27 online apps took $109.3 million in bets on the Super Bowl. The operators reported revenues of $12.8 million, which equals a win rate of 11.7%.

Despite South Jersey being home to a lot of Eagles fans, the Garden State’s sportsbooks saw their handle drop nearly 24% from last year’s handle of $143.7 million. But despite the drop in wagering traffic, the sportsbooks’ revenue – again due in large part to the Eagles bets taken – increased by $5 million, or 64.1%, from last year.