The battle over market supremacy for sports betting in Kansas has been underway for just a few months.
And, as it turns out, it may already be over.
The latest earnings reports for Kansas sports betting were just released by the state. They show us how much money has been wagered through June 2023. More importantly, they show us where those bets have been placed.
Unlike other earning reports, the details from June are a stronger confirmation of potential trends. Legal sports betting in Kansas has now been active for almost a year after debuting in September 2023. That means we can start extrapolating results in the context of the bigger picture. Trends can always change, but with nearly one year of betting in the books, the Kansas gambling market is starting to take a discernible direction.
Is this direction good? Bad? Neutral? Sustainable? Let's pore over the details to find out.
DraftKings is Currently Edging Out FanDuel for the Majority of Kansas Sports Betting Business
Through June of this year, DraftKings and FanDuel account for 70 percent of all the bets placed in Kansas. That's basically a two-company monopoly on the market. Other competitors, such as BetMGM and BarStool Sportsbook, aren't even kind of close.
This isn't particularly surprising. These two outfits aren't just some of the most popular online sportsbooks in the United States. They are standard-bearers for the industry. Both companies are active in just about every state that allows mobile sports betting, and every other operator involved in those races to generate revenue are usually jockeying for third place, behind both FanDuel and DraftKings.
Let's use the sports betting market in Kansas as an example. Last month, BetMGM finished with the third highest total handle, accepting a combined $13.1 million in bets. That number was still more than $20 million behind each of FanDuel and DraftKings, which populated the top two spots.
Really, instead of competing with everyone else, FanDuel and DratKings are competing against each other. And that competition is heating up. Especially for DraftKings. They have led all operators in Kansas for the past couple of months.
Back in May, DraftKings posted a sports betting handle of around $47.9 million while generating roughly $4.3 million in total revenue. FanDuel trailed their handle by more than $12 million, accepting $35.3 million worth of wagers and turning a profit of $3.4 million. That separation apparently held steady for the month of June as well, according to EGR.global. Will FanDuel be able to catch DraftKings in the weeks and months to come? They'll sure as heck be trying. We'll just have to wait and see.
Online Sports Betting is More Popular Than Ever in Kansas
While FanDuel and DraftKings continue to jostle for supremacy above every other operator, they are both also part of a fast-accelerating trend: Kansas online sports betting is its own monopoly in general.
Consider this excerpt from Robert Simmons' piece over at EGR.global:
"Kansas’ six online sportsbooks racked up a handle of $115.5 million, a figure down 8 percent month over month, with revenue generated slumping by a more modest 3 percent to $8.7 million in May. Online sportsbooks now account for just over 96 percent of Kansas’ total sports betting revenue with the state collecting just $887,390 in tax revenue from both retail and online operators. Drilling down into these figures, DraftKings and FanDuel continued their tussle for market leadership, as they have done in a number of US states over the year."
You read that correctly. Online sportsbooks now account for more than 96 percent of the Kansas sports betting business. Though we don't have exact figures for the entire United States in 2023, that 96 percent share is noticeably higher than the national average in 2022, which checked in somewhere between 75 and 80 percent.
There isn't necessarily a specific reason for this overwhelming trend. Online sports betting can be more popular in states with plenty of rural sections that aren't within close proximity to casinos and retail sports betting locations. In the case of Kansas sports betting, specifically, the state has almost invited online operators to become their flagship method of gambling. The state has only a handful of brick-and-mortar retail locations up and running. There aren't many options to wager in-person beyond the four licensed Kansas casinos. That itself is a big reason why betting in The Sunflower State skews heavily towards online mediums.
Kansas Sports Betting Revenue has Decreased, But Should the State be Worried
Another tidbit culled from the latest Kansas earning reports: Sports betting revenue appears to have fallen off over the past couple of months. Should the state be concerned?
Probably not.
May is not a popular month for sports bettors. There isn't much going on beyond the NBA playoffs and NHL playoffs, and Kansas doesn't have a team from either league in the market. It should be the same story in July.
Sports betting in Kansas, however, should start to tick up significantly when the 2023 NFL season officially begins with exhibition games in August. Granted, Kansas doesn't have an NFL team inside state lines, either. But the Kansas City Chiefs are just around the corner in Missouri.
Also: The Sunflower State appears to be expanding their retail sports betting reach. Most recently, yet another tribe received a Kansas sports betting license. Adding an operator to the market should help beef up sports betting returns even during the leaner (aka non-NFL) months of the calendar.
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