UPDATE: New York sports betting will launch Saturday morning, with four books approved — DraftKings, FanDuel, Caesars and BetRivers. This story was originally published on Tuesday and has been modified with the launch news.
New York Senator Joe Addabbo, the state’s foremost proponent of bringing mobile sports betting to the Empire State, is readying for his dream to become a reality.
And the date is now set — Saturday, Jan. 8, at 9 a.m. ET.
“The servers for the sportsbooks that had to be put on the land based casinos with the licenses are almost ready,” Addabbo told The Action Network on Tuesday night, before the launch date was official.
In November, the New York Gaming Commission awarded nine mobile sports book licenses: DraftKings, FanDuel, BetMGM, Caesars, Resorts World, PointsBet, Rush Street, WynnBet and Bally Bet.
New York State will charge the books a tax rate of 51 percent of gross revenues. Addabbo refused to provide an estimated handle projection for the 2022 year.
“We have double the population of New Jersey and we have more than double the tourism, so we should be competitive,” Addabbo said. “But New Jersey came out with projections in the early going and they were overestimated and that didn’t help. Since then, they’ve obviously knocked it out of the park.”
In 2018, estimates for New Jersey at sports betting maturity were $8 billion in handle. When New Jersey reports 2021 handle in 10 days, it’s expected the handle will surpass $10 billion, a monumental jump from last year’s record of $6 billion.
Some of that has to do with the fact that New York has not had mobile sports betting and New Jersey has been plucking gamblers, especially near New York City.
“We’re hoping gamblers switch and stay,” Addabbo said. “And that means, stop betting in New Jersey, Pennsylvania or illegally and switch to us and keep your business here.”
One of the moves up Addabbo’s sleeve is to try to combine parimutuel racing and sports betting, which are traditionally kept separate and involve betting on separate apps. Addabbo said there are currently bills in both the assembly and the senate to do so, with the blessing of the New York Racing Association.
Nine companies were approved to operate in the state of New York back in November, which left a handful of reputable sportsbooks out of the fold, such as Penn National/Barstool Sports, as well as European shops Unibet and bet365.
DraftKings, FanDuel, Bally Sports and BetMGM were the first group to successful submit bids; PointsBet, Caesars, WynnBet, Kambi Group and Resorts World later followed suit.
While in-person betting has been available in New York since 2019, revenue from online sports betting should be a boost for the state — after all, it’s striking a 51% tax on profits from operators; nearby New Jersey has just an 8.5% tax on in-person sports betting and a 13.5% tax for online or mobile wagers.
New York’s offering a plethora of general, betting markets — straight bets, parlays, teasers, props, and more — but bettors are prohibited from wagering on in-state college teams.
_PromoID=[5113,5114]