Sports Betting Off To A Booming Success In New York State

With the steady increase in the popularity of regulated sports betting across the US, more and more states have legalized online gambling. Since the Supreme Court overturned the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA) of 1992, dozens of US states have moved with the times and allowed residents and visitors to gamble lawfully. 

Currently, around 30 states permit legalized sports betting, with about 20 also allowing online gambling, meaning over 100 million Americans can place legal bets where they live. However, since the abolishment of PASPA in 2018, sports bettors in the Empire State have missed out on the online betting action. Despite New York legalizing in-person sports betting back in 2013, there was a significant lull between this and the state’s decision to legalize online sports wagering.

However, this came to an end this weekend. Now, New York bettors can join in on all the sports betting fun as the state saw the legalization of regulated online sports betting! New Yorkers can now place wagers at some of the US’ top sportsbooks.

NY Online Sports Betting Off To A Great Start

As of 9 a.m on Saturday, January 8th, 2022, the online gambling gates opened wide for New York sports bettors. After a lengthy legislative process, the masses were finally able to take to their computers and mobile devices to place exciting bets. And, despite being the most recent state to legalize gambling, New York may already be the biggest sports betting market across the entire USA!

Since New York is the fourth most populous state within the US, it saw extremely heavy traffic with its first weekend of legalized sports betting. In fact, NY became the top US state for online sports betting within its first 12 hours of launch! The state beat now second-place-holder PA by around 2.5x, with New York sports betting generating approximately 5.8 million geolocation pings.

Bettors from the state checked sports betting sites and apps over 17 million times within the first 36 hours after the launch on Saturday. Similarly, New York City’s five boroughs saw more than 8 million geolocation pings, more than any other state within the US!

Legal New York Sportsbooks

At the time of launch, the New York State Gaming Commission permitted four mobile sportsbook operators to start taking bets. Opening weekend saw the launch of the following prominent sports betting platforms across the Empire State:

• DraftKings
• FanDuel
• Caesars Sportsbook
• BetRivers

The successful launch of these renowned sportsbooks within the state has been the talk of the online sports betting world since NY’s opening weekend, and this is likely to continue for months on end. 

However, over the past weekend, several sportsbooks did experience various setbacks. Namely, certain apps were down and could not be accessed by sports bettors in New York at times due to the unforeseen large amounts of traffic. That said, the sportsbooks were back up and running in no time and able to take NY bettor’s wagers once again. Despite this, the launch of regulated online sports betting in New York has exceeded everyone’s expectations. 

Furthermore, five more successful sportsbook operators are also expected to go live somewhere in the near future. Ultimately, this will bring the total number of regulated online sports betting platforms within the state of New York up to nine. These betting sites are as follows:

• BetMGM
• PointsBet
• WynnBet
• Resorts World
• Bally Bet

These esteemed sports betting sites have all received conditional licenses from the New York State Gaming Commission. We do not yet know when these sites are expected to launch. However, it will likely be at some point within the near future. 

The Timing Of New York Online Sports Betting

The launch of online sports betting within the Empire State could not have come at a better time. As any avid sports bettor will know, the beginning of a new year also foresees the start of many major sporting events within the next few months. Ultimately, New York has timed this launch perfectly.

The legalization of regulated online gambling in NY coincides with the beginning of the NFL Playoffs in January. Similarly, this month also sees the NBA and NHL seasons advancing into more competitive parts. However, the month of February anticipates the NBA All-Star Game and the celebrated Super Bowl, the latter being the most bet-on sporting event of the year in the US. 

Ultimately, all of these popular sporting events and tournaments will hopefully equate to more significant profits from wagers at legitimate sportsbooks for the state.

The Future of Online Betting in New York

With the PASPA ban struck down, more and more states have permitted legalized online sports gambling to both citizens and visitors. As a result, the industry has expanded in popularity at an alarming rate, growing from a select number of states to well over two dozen. With New York being the US’ most recent and most successful state for online sports betting, what can we expect to see in its future?

Arguably the biggest question facing the state is whether it will continue its blazing run as the US’ leading sports betting market? Or will this spark eventually burn out? Only time will tell. But if we’re going off the success of its opening weekend, we can confidently say that the Empire State will continue to amass massive numbers of bettors and drive traffic to regulated sportsbooks.