The Reality of the Coronavirus Sports Shutdown Proves Out in Pennsylvania

It comes as no surprise that Pennsylvania's land-based and online sports betting revenue took a major hit in March of 2020. Even with the world's major sports leagues shutting down during the early part of March, Penn's sports betting industry still recorded just over $131 million in revenue, most over the first 11 days of the month. This amount represents the smaller reported number since August of 2019.

What was really disappointing for sportsbooks throughout the US was the loss of potential revenue from the NCAA Men's and Women's March Madness basketball tournaments as well as the continuation of the NBA season and the start of the MLB regular season. All told, PlayPennsylvania estimates that Pennsylvania bookmakers lost out on approximately $220 million in sports being revenue in March.

Things could even get worse should the NBA decide to cancel the rest of the NBA season, including the playoffs. There are even talks that MLB baseball might call it quits until 2021. That would certainly make for a long summer for sports gamblers who would be sent scurrying to find other places to wager the available gambling dollars.

As a clear indication, the Pennsylvania online sports betting market was on fire at the Tim of the shutdown, online bookmakers were responsible for $118 million of the reported $131 million in overall sports betting revenue. That's a whopping 90% of the sports betting market in Pennsylvania. It's worth noting that states like Indiana and New Jersey are seeing similar results.

Despite the drastic drop in sports gambling revenue, which is expected to continue into the foreseeable future, there was a small light at the end of the tunnel. For the month of March, online casino operations reported $24.3 in online casino gambling revenue. That's up significantly from the record-setting $19.5 million reported in February. Of the $24.3, online poker from PokerStars reported an improved $3.1 million in online poker revenue. These kinds of numbers won't save the day, but it does indicate online gamblers are looking for options.

According to Dustin Gouker, lead analyst for PlayPennsylvania.com: “Pennsylvania’s online product has been slow to develop, but the revenue the industry is generating now is vital to the gaming industry and the state budget. Ideally, Pennsylvania’s online casino industry would’ve had the opportunity to mature more quickly. But it is definitely better than if it didn’t exist at all, as is the case in most states.”