After a profitable September for sportsbook operators in the United States, October has not been as successful. Lower holds across the country have led to never-before-seen losses and adjustments for future revenue projections. During a conference call last Friday, DraftKings CEO Jason Robins they got crushed in Q4 by the public. Robins called it “the most customer-friendly stretch of sport outcomes that we’ve ever seen early in the fourth quarter”.
Where did the struggles happen in October?
While data is still being collected, sportsbooks who’ve already released their state revenue are behind in October. No operator has reached a 10% win rate in October. Following a strong end to Q3, most sportsbooks are around a 7% hold to start Q4. DraftKings decided to scale back their guidance for the rest of 2024. Their fiscal-year revenue range of $5.05 billion to $5.25 billion reported on August 1 fell from $4.85 billion to $4.95 billion.
Adjusted EBITDA went from $340 million to $420 million to $240 million and $280 million. Jason Robins noted that their figures in 2024 as a whole were down. DraftKings expects to improve to a 10.5% hold in Q4 and finish the year with around a 10% win rate. The company needs the public to not hammer operators in the final quarter of the year.
Sportsbooks were extremely profitable in September
During September, sportsbooks did not have any complaints about how the public was doing. That’s because September was an extremely strong month for operators in the United States. The NFL being back in full swing is in large part why sportsbooks enjoyed a strong end to Q3. There have been 30 states that have reported their September revenue figures.
Twenty-eight of those 30 operators reported a hold of 10% or higher in September. Two other states reported a hold of at least 9%. Of all the states in September, New York was the most lucrative with $204.7 million. That was the second-highest all-time in the Empire State. New York sportsbooks recorded their highest handle ever at $2.3 billion in October. However, revenue fell 13.9% month-over-month.
