Yesterday we detailed the rough beginning to 2024 that a couple of Kansas sportsbooks had — revenue of $0 rough — but the other K state had slightly different results. In fact, nearly every Kentucky sports betting operator came away with at least $1 million in revenue in the months of January and February and over a 7% hold.
Overall, Kentucky sportsbooks held 14.9% in January and 10.3% in February. And though the majority of that came from the top 3 operators — DraftKings, FanDuel and Caesars — every other sportsbook was profitable as well. Combined in the first two months of the year, FanDuel led in revenue with $23 million and DraftKings was second with $22.1 million to lead the way.
Really, the top 3 was more of a top 2: Caesars’ combined revenue in January and February was $4.9 million to finish third. Bet365 was fourth at $2.9 million, BetMGM fifth with $1.95 million, ESPN BET sixth at $1.86 million and Fanatics seventh with $685,200.
Other major notes were that January was much better for the secondary books than February, as Bet365, ESPN BET, BetMGM and Fanatics all saw fairly hefty dips in handle and hold the second month of the year. In January, six of seven books (ESPN BET the lone miss) had double-digit hold percentages; February, however, saw only the top 3 hit that mark.
All told, Kentucky sportsbooks combined for $59.7 million in taxable revenue over these two months, which amounted to $8.4 million for the state.
Now, some may see the handles over the last few months and view them negatively — January saw a 2.6% decrease in handle from December and February a 19% decrease from January. However, the spring includes probably the two most popular sporting events in Kentucky: The NCAA Tournament (in which the Kentucky Wildcats bowed out in the first round, so maybe a net neutral there) and the Kentucky Derby, which runs the first weekend of May.
The point is that Kentucky sportsbooks are all producing profits with no exceptions, and that has been coming during a relatively lean sporting period — at least in terms of the big Kentucky events.
