Pennsylvania: more than $30m in wagers on Super Bowl

The Super Bowl took place this past weekend and Pennsylvania registered more than US$30 million in wagers.

US.- The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board (PGCB) has released the preliminary figures from sports betting activity from this past weekend. During the Super Bowl, more than US$30 million was wagered in Pennsylvania through retail and online sportsbooks.

The PGCB said that payouts totalled over US$34 million, while losses in revenue for operators were more than US$3.3 million. This was the second year in which legal sports betting was available in the state for the Super Bowl, but the first one in which online bets were available.

Handle from retail was US$6.7 million, while handle from the online sector rose to US$24 million. Moreover, revenue from retail was only US$450k, while revenue from online was US$2.8 million.

Last year, the sports wagering market consisted of only six retail outlets. This year, patrons could choose to place Super Bowl wagers at a dozen retail locations and through eight online wagering sites. The Board also reported that almost 200,000 persons logged onto online sports wagering sites in Pennsylvania based on data it obtained of the number of unique users on the websites. This is in addition to patrons who were visiting and wagering at the retail locations. Figures from previous NFL Sundays show the number of unique visitors on the Pennsylvania sports wagering websites was closer to 100,000.