Since online casinos launched in Michigan in January of 2021, there have been three operators leading the way.
In reality, there was one always leading the way, with two others competing for a distant second. BetMGM has held the top spot in the state when it comes to Michigan online casino revenue.
However, in the last year we have seen its dominance starting to show signs of decline, mostly due to the rise of FanDuel and DraftKings.
Where the online casinos stood a year ago
We don’t have to go back too far to see just how dominant BetMGM Michigan was in the state’s online casino market.
Through the first 10 months of 2022, BetMGM had more combined revenue for the year than FanDuel Casino Michigan and DraftKings Casino Michigan had combined.
In the overall picture, it held over one-third of the market share in Michigan and didn’t seem like it could be touched.
Here’s what things looked like over the first 10 months of 2022 for the three online casino leaders in Michigan.
| Operator | BetMGM | FanDuel | DraftKings |
|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue through Oct. 2022 | $481.0 million | $202.6 million | $199.0 million |
| Market share of MI | 37.5% | 15.8% | 15.5% |
| Peak revenue month | October - $52.3 million | October - $23.0 million | October - $22.6 million |
| Bottom revenue month | January - $43.9 million | January - $17.6 million | May - $17.8 million |
| Peak market share month | June - 38.9% | September - 17.4% | September - 17.0% |
| Bottom market share month | January - 36.2% | January - 14.6% | May - 14.0% |
FanDuel, DraftKings closing the gap in 2023
Thus far in 2023, BetMGM remains clearly on top of Michigan’s online casino revenue race.
However, FanDuel and Draftkings have made dramatic strides to close the gap.
The two competitors have added multiple percentage points to their market share for 2023, while BetMGM is down over 5% despite its overall revenue up from a year ago.
Here’s how things are looking thus far in 2023.
| Operator | BetMGM | FanDuel | DraftKings |
|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue through Oct. 2023 | $492.7 million | $318.5 million | $293.2 million |
| Market share of MI | 31.4% | 20.3% | 18.7% |
| Peak revenue month | March - $56.2 million | October - $37.0 million | September - $37.1 million |
| Bottom revenue month | August - $44.0 million | January - $28.9 million | January - $26.2 million |
| Peak market share month | January - 34.4% | October - 23.0% | September - 22.3% |
| Bottom market share month | October - 28.5% | January - 18.8% | January - 17.1% |
Will this BetMGM maintain lead in 2024?
It’s clear that FanDuel and DraftKings have put a concentrated effort on their iGaming product in the last year.
We’ve seen that downloads of their casino app are up this year, while they continue to build on their gaming libraries and do a better job of cross-promoting.
Despite that, there’s been a drastic climb for both in the last year. With both up around 50% in overall revenue at this point in 2023, it’s hard to imagine they can continue that pace next year.
BetMGM is closer to a plateau, sitting just about $12 million more in overall revenue. Next year could see it decline based on the fact its peak months were early in 2023, opposite of its two peers.
Still, BetMGM is holding onto that top spot for a while. It has a $176 million lead on FanDuel even in a “down year” for growth.
The days of owning 37% of the market share may be gone, but BetMGM Michigan still isn’t giving up its top spot anytime too soon.
What could be possible is a month where BetMGM doesn’t have the top spot for revenue in 2024. But, that would likely be at the end of next year at best. October of 2023 saw the closest gap yet between BetMGM and FanDuel in a full month of revenue, with the difference at less than $10 million.
Considering the gap a year ago was closer to $30 million between BetMGM and its peers, a monthly victory seems within reach over the next 12 months.
