Pennsylvania Reports $84M In Super Bowl Bets

The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board reported that preliminary figures show $84,313,189 was wagered in the state on the Super Bowl.

The Big Game featured the Philadelphia Eagles vs. Kansas City Chiefs. In Arizona, the Kansas City Chiefs prevailed over the Philadelphia Eagles, 38-35. The Eagles were slightly favored in the game.

The handle was a 24% increase over the $68,044,810 in wagers placed on the Los Angeles Rams vs. Cincinnati Bengals game last year.

After payouts, revenue is expected to be $29,722,902 compared to $4,575,339 in 2022.

This was the fifth year in which legal sports wagering was available in Pennsylvania for the Super Bowl and the fourth in which online wagering options were available. This year, gamblers could choose to place Super Bowl wagers at 19 retail locations and through 14 online wagering sites, the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board said.

The Board also reported that more than 793,000 online sports wagering accounts were active during the Super Bowl weekend, per data from geolocation technology service GeoComply.

Additionally, GeoComply reported that it conducted more than 11.8 geolocation checks during the weekend to ensure that the wagering activity was being conducted by individuals who were within Pennsylvania and were authorized to conduct wagering on a site. The activity reported by GeoComply does not include any wagering by patrons at retail sports wagering locations.

The handle in Pennsylvania was a little more than half the handle taken in Nevada, home to Las Vegas and the iconic Strip casinos.

The Nevada Gaming Control board released figures showing that about $153.2 million was wagered in Nevada’s 185 sportsbooks on this year’s Super Bowl. Unaudited figures showed a sportsbook win of $11,287,594 was recorded. The figure was a hold percentage of 7.4%.

According to the AGA, the casino industry’s top trade group, bettors nationwide planned to wager an estimated $16 billion on the 2023 Super Bowl, more than double last year’s estimates. With the expansion of legal sports betting, traditional Super Bowl wagers were expected to pass casual wagers for the first time, the AGA said.