A great start to the NFL season turned into a terrible week for New York sportsbooks.
Key Takeaways
- New Yorkers took advantage of favorites, overs and touchdown scorers during NFL Week 1.
- The statewide handle nearly reached $595 million.
- Operators' gross revenue declined 44.5% compared to Week 1 last year.
The Empire State's eight online sportsbooks suffered one of their worst weeks ever during the NFL regular season. The New York State Gaming Commission reported on Thursday that mobile operators generated $16.96 million in gross revenue on a massive $594.6-million handle during the week ending Sept. 13.
Gross revenue was down 44.5% from Week 1 in 2025 and 62% week over week when college football drove action.
Eight NFL favorites covered the spread Sunday, including the Bills. The Jets and Giants both won outright as underdogs, while nine of the day’s 13 games went over the point total. Several popular touchdown scorers found the end zone, creating other winning bets for New Yorkers.
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Action spikes
The period’s 2.9% hold is the third lowest that operators have produced in an NFL regular-season week since sports betting launched in early 2022, and no New York online sportsbook won back at least 6%.
The two weeks with lower win rates were a 1.9% hold during the week ending Oct. 20, 2024, and a 2.7% hold during the week ending Dec. 18, 2022. Both periods produced around $10 million in gross revenue each. Only three weeks featuring a non-playoff slate have led to less gross revenue, including the first week of wagering.
The latest handle increased 12.7% compared to Week 1 last year, while action spiked 23% week over week. New York sports betting operators were unable to take advantage of the highest handle of 2026 and the most dollars wagered since the end of November 2025.
Low holds
FanDuel generated the highest handle with $224.5 million in wagers, but the top operator in market share held 3.7%, producing just $8.3 million in gross revenue. DraftKings had the state’s lowest hold (2.2%), taking home $4.7 million on $216.7 million in wagers despite recording its first handle above $200 million during a full 2026 week.
Fanatics customers had an extremely strong run against the operator, keeping the hold to 1.1% on a handle of over $60 million. BetMGM also had a rough week, producing a 2.7% hold on a $34.5-million handle.
BetRivers produced the state’s best hold, reaching 5.8% on a $10.4-million handle, while theScore Bet got to 5.6% on $7.5 million in wagers. Caesars and Bally Bet barely kept 3% of their respective handles.
