It’s all the same. Only the names will change.
Some 2½ years after the launch of regulated online casino play in Michigan, even following the month in which Caesars Casino rebranded as Caesars Palace Online Casino, the above quote by a famous rock band from a different legal iCasino state applies. The Michigan iCasino revenue leaderboard is proving remarkably consistent month after month.
There were 14 operators in the state at month’s end, and eight of them pulled in under $5 million in gross receipts in August’s revenue report, as they do most every month. (Although low seven figures for an online casino operation with relatively modest staffing and expenses is still a nice boost to a property’s bottom line.)
As for the six who routinely exceed $5 million a month — or in one case, scores about 10 times that — the order is identical nearly every time.
And in August, Caesars Palace Online Casino, as it became known mid-month, held firm in sixth place, following up a $6.9 million May, a $6.6 million June, and a $6.9 million July with a $6.9 million August. Each iCasino in the state must be partnered with a land-based operator, and Caesars is tethered to the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians.
BetMGM’s lead can’t be hacked into
The leader in Michigan, by a wide margin, remains BetMGM Casino, which is, naturally, partnered with MGM Grand Detroit. The iCasino generated a shade over $44 million in gross receipts in August (and $39.6 million in adjusted gross receipts), its lowest tally of the year, but not far off from the July gross receipts of $49 million — and still far ahead of the rest of the field.
The sports betting powerhouses that hold the top two positions in nearly every state in which they operate, FanDuel and DraftKings, rank second and third in Michigan iCasino. FanDuel Casino, in partnership with Detroit’s MotorCity Casino, placed second in August (and every month this year) with $33.2 million in gross receipts, while DraftKings, in partnership with the Bay Mills Indian Community, came in at $28.2 million.
Rounding out the top five — last month and nearly every month — were BetRivers (partnered with Little River Band of Ottawa Indians) at $10.5 million in August and Golden Nugget (partnered with Keweenaw Bay Indian Community) at $7.2 million. For both iCasinos, those were their best revenue months of 2023.
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