New York has become the engine room of US sports betting with $26.31bn wagered in 2025

The clearest state-level story in the new PlayersTime analysis is New York’s dominance. The report says New Yorkers wagered $26.31 billion on sports in 2025, the highest total in the country and a 15.9% increase from the previous year. That kept New York firmly ahead of every other legal market, with Illinois second on $14.07 billion and New Jersey third on $12.04 billion.

That lead is not marginal. New York’s total was nearly double Illinois’ and more than $14 billion clear of New Jersey. At state level, it has become the focal point of the American sports betting economy, with enough scale to shape national rankings on its own. The report also notes that New York remained the key early-2026 market, keeping its place at the top as the new year opened.

For January 2026 alone, the New York State Gaming Commission reported a combined sports betting handle of $2.45 billion in the state, according to Playerstime. That total produced $251.2 million in combined gross revenue. The report says mobile betting accounted for $2.44 billion of that handle, up 2.6% from the previous month, while mobile revenue dipped 3.5% to $250.2 million.

What makes New York especially newsworthy is that it combines huge scale with unusually heavy taxation. Playerstime notes that the state taxes mobile sports betting revenue at 51%, the highest rate in the US. In January 2026, the net revenue of New York’s eight licensed mobile operators stood at $122.8 million, with $127.8 million directed to education. That makes New York one of the clearest examples of sports betting functioning not just as a consumer market, but as a major public revenue source.

The report also shows how concentrated the market remains at operator level. FanDuel and DraftKings controlled 69.3% of New York’s total mobile handle in January 2026, while Bally Bet held just 0.7% of the month’s wagering volume. So even in the country’s largest state market, scale is still being captured mostly by the biggest brands.