The sports betting market in the state of New York has the potential to generate between $816 million and $1.14 billion in annual gross gaming revenue. This is the estimate of the New York Gaming Commission which recently released its study on sports betting.
The long-awaited 358 page analysis, conducted by Spectrum Gaming Group, takes into account the potential of mobile sports betting, which has still not been legalized in the state. In the report’s analysis, a future market would see sports betting platforms operated through the four commecial casinos and three gaming tribes in the state.
The report comes as a crucial time as Governor Andrew Cuomo considers bringing sports betting to the state as a means to bring in much needed funds.
But analysts are sceptical that with the type of market that Cuomo has in mind, it will be competitive enough to drive the kind of revenue potential predicted by the report.
The governor has called for a state-monopoly style market, similar to the one found in New Hampshire, where only one company runs sports betting on behalf of the state.
Cuomo’s plan is to have operators respond to a request for proposals, and those operators have to be in partnership with one of the four existing licensed commercial casinos. That narrows the choice down to four: FanDuel (partnered with Tioga Downs), DraftKings (partnered with Del Lago), BetRivers (Rivers Casino in Schnectady) and Bet365 (partnered with Empire Resorts).
The governor makes no secret of the fact that he wants the state to get the bulk of the revenues.
“Many states have done sports betting but they basically allow casinos to run their own gambling operations. That makes a lot of money for casinos but it makes minimal money for the state,” he said recently. “And I’m not here to make casinos a lot of money. I’m here to raise funds for the state. So we have a different model for sports betting.”
