NY Mobile Sports Betting: August 2026 GGR Eases to $168M as Hold Normalizes to 9.7%
New York mobile sportsbooks took $1.73B in handle and posted $168.5M in gross gaming revenue during August 2026, per the latest report from the New York State Gaming Commission. Revenue eased 21.4% month-over-month as the hold rate normalized from July's elevated 11.41% back to 9.73% — just above the long-run 9.0-9.5% band. Handle slipped 7.8% from July as the summer sports calendar thinned ahead of football. Against a high August 2025 comparable, handle ran 15.3% lower and GGR 5.5% lower — though a firmer hold, up 1.01 points year-over-year, cushioned the revenue side. Tax to education came in at $85.9M.
The Headline Numbers
August's $1,731,302,503 in handle was 7.8% below July ($1.88B) as the World Cup receded and MLB carried the schedule ahead of the NFL's return. GGR eased a steeper 21.4% because the hold rate gave back July's elevated 11.41% reading and settled at 9.73%, near the top of the long-run 9.0-9.5% band. That is the market behaving normally — GGR falls faster than handle in any month where hold reverts from an outlier high back toward the mean.
July to August: A Return to Normal Hold
July's 11.41% hold was one of the firmer readings of the year, itself a bounce back from June's outlier 5.18%. August did not repeat it. Statewide hold settled at 9.73% — the kind of number operators expect in a quiet, football-free stretch of the calendar — and both handle and GGR eased from July as a result.
The move down was orderly. Handle of $1,731,302,503 was 7.8% below July, and GGR of $168,476,334 was 21.4% lower — the larger GGR decline simply reflects hold reverting toward its long-run average from July's high. Tax to education followed revenue down to $85,934,232. For the week-by-week detail the monthly figure smooths over, see our weekly report for the week ending Aug 2.
| Month | Handle | GGR | Hold | Tax to Education |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| August 2026 | $1,731,302,503 | $168,476,334 | 9.73% | $85,934,232 |
| July 2026 | $1,878,017,985 | $214,365,817 | 11.41% | $109,326,567 |
| August 2025 | $2,044,463,754 | $178,210,439 | 8.72% | $90,887,324 |
Source: NYSGC monthly mobile sports wagering report.
Year-Over-Year: Off a High 2025 Base
August 2025 posted $2.04B in handle, a comparatively high summer figure for New York. Against it, August 2026's $1.73B came in 15.3% lower. GGR held up better — $168.5M versus $178.2M, a 5.5% decline — because hold improved year-over-year, from 8.72% to 9.73%, a gain of 1.01 points.
Tax to education tracked GGR, at $85.9M against $90.9M a year ago — a 5.4% decline. The single-month comparison is a reminder that year-over-year swings in summer months turn heavily on the sports calendar and on where hold lands, not on a change in the underlying size of the market.
Fiscal Year 2026/2027: Five Months In
April through August 2026 has produced $10.16B in handle, $947.9M in GGR, and $483.5M in tax revenue to education. Hold for the partial fiscal year sits at 9.33% — essentially on the long-run average, even as the monthly readings swung from April's 11.28%, to May's 9.57%, to June's 5.18%, to July's 11.41%, and back to August's 9.73%.
For context, all of FY 2025/2026 (April 2025 - March 2026) sent $1.33 billion to education from mobile betting. Five months into FY 2026/2027, the run rate is roughly $96.7M per month; straight-line annualization points to about $1.16 billion, but the NFL-season months ahead — September through January historically run well above the summer average — should pull the full-year total higher.
What This Means for Bettors
The five-month arc of NY hold in 2026 — 11.28% in April, 9.57% in May, 5.18% in June, 11.41% in July, and 9.73% in August — shows how much month-to-month hold bounces around, and why it is the wrong number for an individual bettor to chase. Practical takeaways:
- Hold is a lagging indicator, not a signal. August's return to a normal 9.73% says nothing about whether the coming weeks favor bettors or books; it is the arithmetic of a quiet sports month, not a trend to trade on.
- Volume eases in the summer lull. Handle slipped both month-over-month and year-over-year in August, the seasonal low point before football — and New York's own history shows handle rebuilding sharply once the NFL arrives.
- Promo value peaks heading into the NFL. August and September carry the biggest promotional pushes from every operator ahead of kickoff. Compare current NY promo codes before you sign up.
- Watch weekly reports, not just monthly. The weekly NYSGC data captures hold swings the monthly report smooths over. See our latest weekly analysis.
What's Next: September 2026 Outlook
September 2026 is the first full month of the NFL season, the single biggest handle inflection point on the sports calendar. A year ago, September 2025 posted $2.29B in handle and $193.8M in GGR at a 8.47% hold — well above the summer months on either side of it. Expect the September 2026 report, due in mid-October, to show:
- Handle climbing sharply from August as NFL Week 1 volume lands — New York topped $2.2B in each of September through January last season
- Hold hinging on early-season NFL results; the long-run norm remains 9.0-9.5%
- MLB pennant-race and early-playoff handle adding to the football base late in the month
- Yankees and Mets down-the-stretch action concentrating around late-September series (see Yankees and Mets team pages)
The seasonal ramp — late-summer's sub-$2B months giving way to the $2.3B-plus football stretch that ran October through January last season — is the defining rhythm of the New York market, and it begins with September's NFL kickoff.
Methodology & Source
All figures are sourced from the New York State Gaming Commission's monthly mobile sports wagering report (statewide), published mid-month for the previous calendar month. Sports wagering gross gaming revenue is reported on a cash basis: wagers on future events are taxed as current revenue, and payouts for winning wagers are recognized in the period redeemed.
Hold rate is calculated as GGR / handle. Long-run NY average since January 2022 launch sits between 9.0% and 9.5%. August 2026's 9.73% landed just above that band, a normal reading after July's elevated 11.41% — genuine outliers, high like April 2026's 11.28% or low like June 2026's 5.18%, reflect short-term variance driven by specific events on the sports calendar.
Source: Total Mobile Sports Wagering Gross Gaming Revenue (GGR) and Taxes - Fiscal Year 2026/2027, New York State Gaming Commission, compiled from data provided by the sportsbooks. Previous monthly reports: July 2026, May 2026. Latest weekly analysis: week ending Aug 2, 2026.