New York Sports Betting Revenue: Size, Growth and Hold

Summary: New York is a $2.6 billion sports betting market

New York’s mobile sports wagering market produced $2.60 billion of gross gaming revenue on $26.16 billion of handle in fiscal 2026, the 12 months from April 2025 to March 2026, based on the quarterly figures published by the New York State Comptroller from New York State Gaming Commission data. Revenue grew 21.2% from fiscal 2025, while handle grew 9.3%.

The difference came from hold. Hold, the share of each wagered dollar kept after payouts, rose from 8.95% to 9.93%, a gain of about 0.98 percentage points. At a 51% tax rate on gross gaming revenue, the state collected about $1.33 billion in fiscal 2026, and the Comptroller describes mobile sports wagering as the state’s second-largest source of gaming revenue, behind the lottery.

This analysis stays at the statewide level and covers market size, growth, seasonality, the sport mix and how New York compares with the national market, using regulator-reported data only. Figures are for the periods stated and were current as of October 2026.

Background: how the market is built and taxed

New York authorizes mobile sports wagering through licensed operators whose bets are accepted by equipment located at a licensed commercial casino facility, according to the New York State Gaming Commission. The Commission also controls the wagering menu, and its operator page lists nine licensed mobile operators. Mobile wagering dominates the state’s sports betting: the Comptroller reports that in-person sports wagering at the state’s commercial casinos has totaled only $69 million of gross gaming revenue since 2019, less than 1% of the mobile total.

The state taxes mobile sports wagering revenue at 51%, and the Gaming Commission says the funds go to education aid, apart from $5 million a year for youth sports programs and $6 million for problem gambling education and treatment, as of October 2026. For readers new to the economics, our explainer on how sportsbooks make money covers how handle becomes revenue, and this article applies those terms to one market.

The state fiscal year runs from April through March, so fiscal 2026 is April 2025 through March 2026. The Comptroller defines gross gaming revenue as wagers received less winning wagers paid out, as well as cancelled or voided wagers. Hold in this article is that revenue divided by handle, calculated from the Comptroller’s published quarterly totals, not a figure reported by operators.

The numbers: three fiscal years

The Comptroller’s September 2026 report publishes quarterly handle, gross gaming revenue and tax receipts for every quarter since the January 2022 launch. Adding the four quarters of each fiscal year gives the totals below. The sums of the 17 published quarters match the report’s all-period totals of $91.22 billion of handle and $8.30 billion of revenue.

New York mobile sports wagering by state fiscal year (April to March). Source: New York State Comptroller, Sports Wagering in New York (September 2026), from Gaming Commission data. Annual totals and ratios are calculated from the quarterly figures.

Hold is revenue divided by handle, and growth is the change from the prior fiscal year.

where: gross gaming revenue is the Comptroller’s published quarterly revenue, summed for fiscal 2026; handle is the total amount wagered in the same four quarters.

Fiscal 2026 growth came mostly from hold. Handle rose 9.3%, from $23.94 billion to $26.16 billion, a slowdown from the 20.4% gain in fiscal 2025. Revenue rose 21.2%, from $2.14 billion to $2.60 billion, compared with 20.5% the year before. Relative hold growth was about 11.0%, which, combined with the 9.3% handle growth, accounts for the revenue gain.

where: handle growth is 9.3%; relative hold growth is 9.93% ÷ 8.95% − 1; the small gap to the 21.2% revenue growth reflects rounding.

Tax receipts followed revenue. State receipts of about $1.33 billion in fiscal 2026 equal roughly $5.07 for every $100 wagered, and 51.0% of revenue. In fiscal 2025 the ratio was 52.1%, so receipts do not always equal exactly 51% of a period’s revenue; the Comptroller’s table does not break down the reason.

Seasonality, sport mix and accounts

The Comptroller notes that wagering is highest from October to March, when the World Series, the Super Bowl and the NCAA basketball tournament take place, and lowest from July to September. The fiscal 2026 quarters show it. Handle peaked at $7.63 billion in the October to December quarter and was lowest at $5.73 billion in July to September. Calculated hold ranged from 9.20% in the July to September quarter to 10.78% in April to June.

The sport mix is concentrated. For single wagers in calendar 2025, the report lists basketball at 36.0% of the amount wagered, football at 19.9%, baseball at 17.4%, tennis at 11.9% and soccer at 6.7%, which together account for 91.9%. The Gaming Commission and the Office of Addiction Services and Supports counted nearly 7.2 million unique mobile accounts in 2025, and the average amount wagered per account fell to $3,500 from $4,329 in 2024, about 19% lower.

What the figures mean for the market

The data points to a market that is maturing in volume but still growing in revenue. Handle growth slowed from 20.4% to 9.3% in a year, and the amount wagered per account fell. Revenue growth is now driven by hold, and it is therefore more exposed to game outcomes and to the mix of bets than to the number of dollars wagered. The Comptroller’s report does not attribute the hold increase to a specific cause, so this analysis does not either.

For the state, the economics are a function of the 51% rate. Because tax is charged on revenue, receipts move with hold as well as handle. For operators, the same rate means that roughly half of each dollar of revenue goes to the state before promotions, marketing and technology costs. This is an analysis of reported figures and not investment advice.

New York compared with the U.S.

To place New York in context, the table compares calendar 2025 with the American Gaming Association’s national commercial figures. New York’s calendar 2025 totals are calculated by adding the January to March 2025 quarter from fiscal 2025 to the three quarters from April to December 2025 in fiscal 2026. New York was about 15.7% of national handle and 15.0% of national revenue.

Calendar year 2025. New York: Comptroller quarterly data (mobile only), calculated. U.S.: American Gaming Association Commercial Gaming Revenue Tracker (commercial operators, including retail). Shares and hold calculated.

The comparison shows that New York’s hold was about 0.46 percentage points below the national figure, while its tax rate is far higher than the national blend. The two datasets are not identical: the national series includes retail betting and uses each state’s own revenue definition, so the shares are approximations and not official statistics.

Risks, limits and misreadings

Results can swing sharply with game outcomes. In June 2026, handle was above $2.2 billion, up $604 million (36.6%) from June 2025, but gross gaming revenue was $116.8 million, down $89.7 million (43.5%). The Comptroller suggests a potential reason is the Knicks’ NBA championship, noting that during the NBA Finals more than $1 billion was wagered while revenue was a net loss of $14.4 million. One event can erase a month’s revenue, and a high or low month says little about the trend.

The first quarter of fiscal 2027, from April to June 2026, had revenue of $565.1 million, which was $83.1 million lower than the same quarter a year earlier, and state revenue was lower by $38.6 million, according to the report. The Comptroller also flags rapid growth in trading on prediction market platforms and says whether it has affected New York’s mobile sports wagering is currently unknown.

This analysis has limits. It covers statewide totals only, even though the Commission publishes monthly operator reports, and so it says nothing about market share by company. It also uses fiscal and calendar years that do not align, and a calculated hold that may differ from the figure an individual operator reports.

Key figures and definitions

Key figures for New York mobile sports wagering, with periods and sources.

Handle is the total amount wagered. Gross gaming revenue is wagers received less winning wagers paid out and cancelled or voided wagers. Hold in this article is gross gaming revenue divided by handle, and a percentage point is not the same as a percent change: 8.95% to 9.93% is up 0.98 percentage points, or about 11.0% in relative terms.

Related analysis and next steps

This article applies the concepts in our explainer on how sportsbooks make money to a single market. The next logical reads are other state markets, which can be compared on the same handle, revenue, hold and tax measures, and company-level analysis of how operators perform inside a market like this one. Comparing markets on a consistent basis requires stating the period, the unit and the revenue definition each time, as this article does. Primary data is available from the Gaming Commission’s monthly revenue reports and the Comptroller’s September 2026 report, both listed below.

Sources & References

• New York State Comptroller — Sports Wagering in New York (Office of Budget and Policy Analysis, September 2026)
• New York State Gaming Commission — Sports Wagering: licensed operators, taxes and revenue
• New York State Gaming Commission — Revenue Reports
• American Gaming Association — Commercial Gaming Revenue Hits $78.7 Billion in 2025 (Feb. 26, 2026)
• American Gaming Association — Commercial Gaming Revenue Tracker, CY 2025