Michigan sportsbooks has been offering legal betting in land-based retail accounts since March of 2020. The retail segment consists of sportsbooks at three commercial casinos all located in the Detroit area. There are also 23 tribal casinos that can legally offer sports betting at their land-based venues.
The game changed dramatically on Jan. 22 of this year with the launch of online sports betting mobile apps. The ten-day handle through Jan. 31 topped $115 million. Sportsbook revenue over the 10-day span reached $29.4 million according to state gaming records.
The NFL’s annual Super Bowl provided a huge jump start to February’s action.
One of the main reasons for the early success is the amount of players involved. In what is expected to be a highly lucrative market, 10 different US sportsbooks hit the ground running with their mobile betting app.
Each of the 10 are tied to one the three commercial casinos as well as 12 federally recognized Indian tribes operating the other 23 land-based casinos. Each operator is limited to one online betting platform.
For example, FanDuel has partnered with Motor City Casino and DraftKings is working with the Bay Hills Indian Community. The other eight partnerships are as follows:
Barstool Sportsbook & Greektown Casino
BetMGM & MGM Grand Detroit
BetRivers & Little River Band of the Ottawa Indians
FOX Bet & Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians
PointsBet & Lac Vieux Desert Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians
TwinSpires & Hannahville Indian Community
William Hill & Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians
WynnBET & Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians
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This is quite the lineup as compared to some other states offering online sports betting through a mobile sportsbook app.
State gaming records tracked the handle over the first 10 days of legal betting. FanDuel led the way with $32.6 million in bets. FanDuel’s parent company is Flutter Entertainment. This handle captured 28.3% in market share.
DraftKings was second on the list at $28.3 million in bets placed. This handle equates to a market share of 24.5%.
In a bit of a surprise, Penn National Gaming’s Barstool Sportsbook was third on the list with a 10-day handle of $27.5 million. This added up to be 23.9% of the market.
BetMGM also posted a strong start with $22.8 million in bets to grab 19.8% of the early market.
After the four sportsbooks listed above, PointsBet rounded out the Top 5 with $1.5 million in bets. BetRivers is owned and operated by Rush Street Interactive. It was sixth on the list with a $1.1 million handle.
It is no big surprise that FanDuel and DraftKings grabbed the lion’s share of the early business in Michigan. Each of these Daily Fantasy Sports providers have made an extremely successful transition into sports betting over the past few years.
The one to watch in this group is Barstool Sportsbook. It posted the best performance in terms of money spent in promotional bonuses verse the generated handle. This resulted in positive revenue over the first 10 days of action.