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PointsBet secures US foothold with combined handle of A$598.9m from eight states in final quarter of 2021

By Conor Mulheir - 28 Jan, 2022

PointsBet is gaining traction in the US after the eight states in which it was live during the fourth quarter of 2021 generated A$598.9m in betting handle, according to financial results released today (28 January).

This represented 45.2% of the operator’s global quarterly betting handle, with the total wagers taken across Australia and North America reaching A$1.33bn.

Australia continued to be the operator’s largest market by betting volume, generating A$727.0m in handle, up 33.8% year-on-year. Gross win in the ASX-listed operator’s homeland came to A$92.2m, up 22.1%.

Net win from the country was A$53.1m, up 6.6% year-on-year, giving a net win margin of 7.3%.

In the US, gross win from the A$598.9m of wagers placed came to A$41.6m, giving an overall gross win margin of 6.9%, significantly lower than the 12.7% gross win margin recorded in Australia.

The operator’s best performing state was Illinois, where it handled A$225.7m in bets, followed by New Jersey where handle was A$138.3m.

Michigan, Colorado, Indiana and Iowa followed behind, recording A$93.4m, A$68.0m, A$44.3m and A$22.9m in bets placed, respectively.

Customers in Virginia (where the operator launched in December 2021) and West Virginia placed just A$3.7m and A$2.7m in bets during the quarter.

Net win in the US totalled A$24.1m, at a margin of 3.1%. Gaming revenues accounted for a modest A$5.4m of net win, with A$3.7m coming from Michigan and A$1.7m from New Jersey.

In addition to its sportsbook offering, PointsBet launched its iGaming product in West Virginia yesterday (27 January) and expects to launch in Pennsylvania and Ontario in the coming months. It also launched its live casino offering in Michigan and New Jersey in November and December, respectively.

The operator boasts 232,875 cash active customers (bettors who have placed a cash bet within the last 12 months) in Australia, up 62.9% year-on-year, while the US saw 211,113 customers place a cash bet with the operator in 2021, more than triple the number in the previous year.

PointsBet data showed that it saw greater average revenue per user from in-play bettors compared to pre-game bettors, globally.

Those who placed bets in-play were found to have an average bet size three times larger than their pre-game counterparts, while they also played on twice as many days during the period and placed twice as many bets per playing day.

The operator ended the period with A$569.0m in cash and cash equivalents on its balance sheet.

On 24 January, PointsBet took its first bets from customers in New York’s regulated mobile sports betting market as it became the sixth operator to launch its sportsbook in the Empire State.

The region may prove key to the operator’s continued growth across the US, as preliminary figures from New York suggest it will rocket towards the top spot of state-by-state sports betting revenue rankings.