Gross gaming revenue for online sports betting (OSB) jumped 25 percent in Q2 of 2024, according to Jefferies Equity Research analyst James Wheatcroft in a Monday morning investor note.
When new-state launches were included in the data, revenue leapt 41 percent. Handle rose 29 percent on a same-store basis, 42 percent all inclusive.
Wheatcroft noted, “Both handle and GGR accelerated in June, suggesting an encouraging exit rate for” the third quarter. Jefferies number-crunchers estimated the rates of growth as 35 percent for handle and 34 percent for revenue in the last month of the quarter. The prognostications were based on 18 states that had reported OSB numbers and five that had checked in with igaming data.
Jefferies also incepted tracking of privately held FanDuel, whose OSB revenue was flat at 46 percent of revenue share, but that was good enough for it to retain primacy during the second quarter. Draft Kings trailed it with 33 percent. Also-rans included BetMGM with seven percent and ESPN Bet and Fanatics, both relative newcomers, with three percent each.
FanDuel grew revenue at a 40 percent clip and DraftKings at 42 percent. BetMGM lagged with a four percent improvement.
All igaming states having reported, growth in internet casino play was consistent with OSB at 25 percent. “Growth was also consistently strong across states, with no state growing at less than” New Jersey’s 21 percent, Wheatcroft added.
Besting terrestrial casino operators, FanDuel was also first in igaming. It grew its gross gaming revenue share four percentage points to 24.2 percent.
Here there was good news for BetMGM, as it “closed the gap with DraftKings, leaving the two brands tied at 20.8% GGR share.” That was, however, before folding in DraftKings’s Golden Nugget Online brand, which boosted DraftKings’s aggregate share to 23.8 percent, less than half a point behind FanDuel.
BetMGM was again third in growth at three percent. FanDuel led with 51 percent improvement, segued by DraftKings at 22 percent.
Wheatcroft observed that the North Carolina OSB promotional environment “remains rational.” Free play as a chunk of handle fell to four percent in June. It had begun at 31 percent in March, before slowing to 12 percent in April and six percent in May.
