Arizona Struggles to Close $500m Betting Handle in December

Another month has passed and the results for December 2021 from Arizona are finally in. The state became one of the latest to legalize and launch its sports betting industry last year and has now been posting steady results, but the goal of realizing a $500-million sports betting handle in a single month has remained just as elusive. Part of this is because of the highly-saturated market around Arizona with Nevada proving one of the hottest spots to place a bet.

However, Arizona came close to hitting the mark in December, reporting $499 million in total sports betting handle with the bulk of that amount, around $494.5 million, coming directly from online wagers. This is over 99% of the total sports betting being realized through online wagers. The other 9% or roughly $5 million of the betting handle came from in-person wagers.

DraftKings, FanDuel and BetMGM Lead the Way

Once again, the bulk of the action was concentrated in America’s three biggest sportsbooks which collectively secured $308.9 million out of the $499 million in December. DraftKings, FanDuel, and BetMGM realized the strongest betting handles, although most of those sportsbooks also saw their results diminish a little in November, signaling a more competitive market and other sportsbooks entering the space.

Arizona presently has 17 online operators which means that the total sports betting handle will be distributed more evenly between the different operators vying for an opportunity to attract sports betting action. DraftKings posted a total of $146.0 million in total bets in December which was more or less on par with the November results.

Meanwhile, BetMGM came in as third best and pulled in $103.8 million. Both DraftKings and BetMGM realized their betting handle through remote and online betting options exclusively. FanDuel, which was the second-best sportsbook in the state, saw $131.1 million out of which $128.5 million came online with the remainder placed through commercial venues.

Arizona’s Sports Betting Zeal Unlikely to Die Down

There have been new entrants in the state as well. Arizona posted the sixth biggest total betting handle with its $499 million in December, behind only Michigan ($514.63m), Pennsylvania ($750.39m), Illinois ($789.6m), Nevada ($1.01bn), and New Jersey ($1.23bn). In the meantime, December also saw an entry from new operators who threw their hats in the ring. Those include Superbook and Fubo who launched ahead of the Christmas season but posted a fairly paltry handle. They are likely to pick up quickly in January. Meanwhile, there were no adjusted revenue reports by BetRivers, Unibet, and TwinSpires for December. The Arizonian sports betting market is only getting started it seems.