Four times a year, the gaming industry gets extremely busy with quarterly reports. The past month has been no different – and as the financial calendar moves through the third quarter, the market has been awash with facts, figures and interpretations from the preceding three-month period.
Among that busy backdrop, anyone could be forgiven for missing the fact that BetMGM’s retail revenue had dropped by a significant 97% year-over-year to a figure of $0 (that's right, zero...), down from $16m for Q2 2025. Of course, the actual figure is likely to be a little above zero, otherwise the drop would have been reported at 100%.
The H1 2026 picture wasn’t much prettier, though, with retail revenue reaching only $12m, down 67% year-over-year. Both time periods were propped up by iGaming growth and a marginal but steady online sports betting performance, with the operator’s overall revenue rising 3%.
Hence, an anomaly.
BetMGM outlined that the retail decline was “impacted by larger-staking bets won by premium players.” This distinction is important, as it suggests visitation statistics remained consistent for the most part, and the result was perhaps not due to reduced activity in lieu of the World Cup, which began in late Q2. Indeed, this explanation perhaps instead serves to highlight the sheer volatility of BetMGM’s potentially high-roller-dependent retail segment.
Borgata as a case study
Borgata Atlantic City, home of BetMGM’s retail sportsbook, has not yet unveiled its own Q2 financials. Nevertheless, its Q1 2026 results provide a useful insight into the operator’s broader retail set-up and serves to highlight that even when revenue does increase, it does not always translate into profitability in the US’ economically strained sector at present.
The Atlantic City property's results highlight a revenue upswing, juxtaposed by a sharp drop out of profitability and into a loss compared to the first quarter of 2025.
This suggests that the challenge facing land-based operators is not necessarily a lack of demand, but the economics of converting that demand into profit. Borgata's financials show a complex cost base around the casino, hotel and entertainment operations against an already difficult economic backdrop in the US at present. It also provides useful color around the decision to relaunch Borgata Online in June, some 13 years after its initial release.
The timing does not necessarily mean the online relaunch was a direct response to Borgata's Q1 loss. But strategically, it is difficult to ignore. If maintaining a major physical casino requires substantial fixed costs while digital gambling can generate revenue without the same property infrastructure, the ability to move a customer between the two channels becomes incredibly valuable.
At what point does the operator call it quits on retail to focus on its highly lucrative digital segments?
That is precisely the argument made by BetMGM CRO Matt Prevost, who spoke exclusively to Global Gaming Insider in June and outlined the operator “firmly believes that for omnichannel players, the players who have interest in both retail and digital, we are far and away the best choice.”
Omnichannel: Opportunity or dependency?
At this juncture, it is important to note that – according to statistics from the American Gaming Association (AGA) – US commercial gaming revenue increased 4.6% in May 2026 (the middle of Q2), driven by ‘traditional casino gaming,’ which grew 4.5% to $4.68bn.
This is important to outline, indeed, because it confirms that the appetite is very much still there for the US player.
Further compounding this argument is the fact that AGA research found 53% of American adults – approximately 134 million people – visited a casino for gambling or entertainment during 2025, an all-time high, while the average age of casino visitors remained well below pre-pandemic levels. So, why are BetMGM’s results still so poor?
The answer remains unclear, although one potential issue with BetMGM’s omnichannel strategy is that the operator is relying on two channels working together despite the vast gulf in their respective profitability.
In short, there is a reason BetMGM is so strong on iGaming, given the volatility of sports betting results.
Further, the pair are pulling away from one another, as digital continues to grow and retail continues to struggle. In time, a strategy which was intended to drive interactive growth for both segments could end up seeing digital simply keeping retail on life support.
A company or market issue?
On the other side of the coin, it may also remain too early for BetMGM’s recently developed omnichannel strategies to have made a noticeable incremental effect on its financial results.
It’s no secret that the US landscape is a difficult beast to tame, and the retail sector is perhaps the most exposed to any potential economic hardships of a nation that, let’s not forget, is currently at war. Time will reveal whether Q2 2026 was simply an unusually volatile quarter for the operator’s sports betting results, or the beginning of a wider trend of increasing operational costs making the retail sportsbook business untenable.
Even prediction markets are now relevant to that calculation. Prevost has acknowledged that their emergence has increased BetMGM's customer-acquisition and marketing costs. BetMGM subsequently said the regulatory complexity surrounding prediction markets meant it was cautious around pushing its ambitions of $500m in adjusted EBITDA beyond its previous 2027 expectation.
Observing isolated results from BetMGM’s Q1 2026 overall, we see that retail revenue declined 43% year-over-year. Indeed, a 43% decline followed by a 97% across consecutive quarters is concerning. Should the trend continue, the question becomes: at what point does the operator call it quits on retail to focus on its highly lucrative digital segments?
Borgata Online launched under one of the first ever licenses awarded by the Nevada Gaming Control Board in 2013
