After just 10 days of operations in Jan., Michigan has already proven that it is a force to be reckoned with in USA’s iGaming sector. The Wolverine State now holds the records for the best monthly start in both online casino and sports betting verticals.
Michigan’s iGaming and online sports betting posted a record $42.7 million win over the first 10 days of launch, between the noon of 22nd January and 31st January, the last full day of the monthly reporting period.
Per a report published by the Michigan Gaming Control Board (MGCB), online sports bettors in the state spent over $115 million on wagers easily besting the record that Tennessee had set over the same period. On its first week after launching in November 2020, Tennessee reported a $27.4 million handle and by the time the month had ended, the sports betting receipts had hit a high of $131 million.
If we go ahead and factor in the $35.7 million handle that Michigan’s retail sportsbooks collected in January, the overall sports betting handle comes to a total of $150.8 million. The roaring debut therefore crowns Michigan as the highest-grossing state on its first month of entry into the world of regulated online sports betting in the history of the US.
From the record-smashing January handle, sportsbooks collected a win of $13.3 million whereas online casinos generated gross receipts worth $29.4 million for the same month; bringing the total revenue for Michigan’s online casino gaming and online sports betting to $42.7 million.
Like sports betting, the gross receipts for online casinos in the state also earned Michigan the title of the biggest monthly debut for online casino gaming in the US. Based on the $29.4 million, online casino operators in the state collected roughly $2.9 million every single day for the 10 days of activity in January, a daily average that has only been surpassed by New Jersey which is currently the biggest US online gambling market.
Moreover, owing to the promotion-heavy launch in a bid to attract as many customers as possible, sportsbooks ended up taking a combined loss of $5.2 million, which in turn won the state $111,696 more for its tax coffers. As for online casino and poker gaming, the $29.4 million worth of gross receipts yielded a cool $4.3 million in tax revenue for the Wolverine State.
How Did Michigan Snap Tennessee’s Online Sports Betting Record?
One of the main reasons why the Wolverine state saw such a terrific launch is because the legal sports betting market went live with a total of 10 online sportsbooks (down from 15 which had received provisional licenses). No other state has launched with that many operators from day one since the states were given the mandate to regulate sports betting as they saw fit after the repeal of PASPA by the SCOTUS.
Better yet, the strong start was supported by the presence of household names in the US sports betting world including Fanduel, DraftKings, and BetMGM. The likes of BetRivers and Barstool from Penn National also formed part of the dream lineup of sportsbooks that set Michigan’s sports betting market in motion.
As exceptional as the numbers are for Michigan’s first month, or rather first 10 days, industry analysts have indicated that the Wolverine State has a bigger potential, especially for the online sports betting vertical.
From January’s handle, online wagers accounted for only 76.3% but analysts project that the online sports betting share will hit 90% plus, as has been the trend in many other states such as Nevada, New Jersey, and Colorado to name a few. Such a movement will potentially make Michigan a contender for the top spot in USA’s burgeoning online sports betting market.
Sportsbook by Sportsbook Breakdown of Michigan’s Stellar Performance in January
Of all the online sportsbooks that went live in Michigan last month, FanDuel at MotorCity Casino handled the highest volume of wagers which were worth $32.6 million, to generate a $622,372 win.
DraftKings at Bay Mills Indian Community came in second with a $28.2 million overall handle, to yield $3.4 million in revenue, and BetMGM at the MGM Grand Detroit rounded up the top 3 after collecting $27.5 million in wagers to rack up a $5.1 million revenue. While BetMGM’s January handle was the third-largest of all the sportsbook operators, the resultant $5.1 million haul topped the state’s online sports betting market for the month.
Barstool at Greektown Casino came in third with a $27.5 million handle but the gross receipts figure was the second largest behind BetMGM’s, after collecting $3.3 million. Finishing off the top five for January was PointsBet at Lac Vieux Desert Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians which saw a $1.5 million handle that generated a revenue of $388,381.
Here’s how the remaining sportsbooks in the state performed;
By the end of January, a total of 11 sportsbooks had received licenses and gone live in Michigan. One more online casino and sportsbook platform at the For Winds Casino operated by The Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians was okayed by the MGCB on Monday last week to bring the total number of internet gaming entities in Michigan to 12.
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