At first glance, BetMGM Michigan suffering a 43% drop in handle from January to February would be concerning.
It’s a pretty notable decline that is hard to miss when looking at the February revenue report for Michigan online sportsbooks.
However, the reality isn’t quite as worrisome.
February — a month known for snapping Michiganders back to reality, albeit typically with weekly snowstorms — looks to have been more of a course correction for one of the state’s top online operators.
Following a January where BetMGM bucked a downward trend by showing growth, February appears to be balancing the scales.
Monthly sports betting handle declines 43% in February at BetMGM Michigan
With a shortened month, and the NFL postseason winding down, February typically shows a noticeable dip in Michigan sports betting handle.
In February, BetMGM Michigan brought in just $62.6 million in online handle.
That 43% decline from January was hard to ignore, but it was a down month for all the top sportsbooks.
- FanDuel: down 18.2%
- DraftKings: down 23.6%
- Barstool: down 35.9%
- Caesars: down 26.2%
BetMGM Michigan also had a larger decline than the operator saw in other states. Michigan saw the biggest month-over-month decline for BetMGM by a wide margin.
- New York: 12% decline ($107.7 million)
- Maryland: 18% decline ($33.2 million)
- Indiana: 18% decline ($31.4 million)
- West Virginia: 19% decline ($42.6 million)
*Not all states have provided February revenue numbers as of this writing
BetMGM MI handle grew more than 11% January
January wasn’t a month many online sportsbook operators saw growth in Michigan.
Collectively, the state dipped less than 1% from December in online handle at $475.6 million.
However, BetMGM Michigan was a clear outlier in the statewide trend.
It recorded $110.5 million on online handle, up 11.1% from December’s $99.5 million total.
BetMGM also saw the 11% increase in handle while most of its top competitors declined in handle.
- FanDuel: up 2.7%
- DraftKings: down 7.8%
- Barstool: down 5.8%
- Caesars: down 8.2%
That growth for BetMGM in Michigan was also the highest for the operator nationwide. BetMGM NY, which went up 6% in January, was the only other major market to see growth.
- Iowa: 15% decline ($17.2 million)
- Pennsylvania: 10% decline ($52.5 million)
- Indiana: 9% decline ($38.2 million)
- New Jersey: 6% decline ($91.3 million)
BetMGM fitting in with Michigan sports betting trend
We’ve seen that Michigan sports betting is hitting somewhat of a plateau toward the end of 2022 and in the early stages of 2023.
In December, we projected Michigan would drop to approximately $4.63 billion in handle for 2023 compared to 2022’s $4.81 billion. That would be about a 3.7% decline for the state.
Michigan has $848.1 million in sports betting handle through the first two months of 2023. That is an 11.3% decline from the $956.5 million in the first two months of 2022.
With that statistic, BetMGM is right in line with the rest of the state.
Here’s what each of the top five online sportsbooks in Michigan looked like for online handle from December 2021-February 2022.
- FanDuel: $375 million
- DraftKings: $347 million
- BetMGM: $306.3 million
- Barstool: $126.2 million
- Caesars: $109.2 million
Here’s where they sit through December 2022-February 2023.
- FanDuel: $418.9 million (up 11.7%)
- DraftKings: $333.9 million (down 3.8%)
- BetMGM: $272.7 million (down 11%)
- Barstool: $79.7 million (down 36.8%)
- Caesars: $87 million (down 20.3%)
Outside of FanDuel continuing to separate itself from the competition, BetMGM is showing the same trend we are seeing in Michigan overall.
March has been a bounce back month for BetMGM Michigan
February drops haven’t been uncommon for BetMGM Michigan.
However, the sportsbook usually gets back on course in March.
In 2022, here’s how BetMGM Michigan’s online handle looked for Q1:
- January: $110.9 million, up 2% from December 2021
- February: $86.7 million, down 21.9%
- March: $108.1 million, up 24.7%
In 2021, BetMGM Michigan recorded $75.7 million in online handle in the first full month of legalized online sports betting in the state. It followed that up with $92.6 million in March, a growth of 22.3%.
