Illinois raises its wagering record to $1.07 billion

The Illinois Gaming Board on Tuesday reported traditional sports betting volume for January of just over $1.07 billion, setting an all-time high while topping $1 billion for the fourth straight month.

The state’s previous record of $1.03 billion was set in October, with both the November and December handles within $1.1 million of that amount. The January number was up 4% from December and 23.3% higher than the $867.5 million generated in January 2022.

Illinois’ January numbers also resulted in a national monthly record for handles for the third straight month, rising to $10.9 billion, with Arizona yet to report. It was also the first time the operator’s gross revenue surpassed $1 billion in a month, with the current total of $1.02 billion in January surpassing the short-lived norm of $955.7 million in December . State tax revenue of $187.3 million generated earlier in the year is also a new record, up from $174 million in November.

Adjusted gross sales in Illinois came in at just over $96 million, the third-highest in Illinois history as the hold settled at just under 9%. These three largest total monthly earnings have come over the last four months of betting in the Land of Lincoln, which has generated $1.5 billion in adjusted gross earnings since its inception in March 2020 of all time. Illinois is also $275 million away from breaking the all-time $20 billion mark.

The state received more than $14.4 million in tax revenue from its 15% tax rate on adjusted gross receipts. Cook County, which includes the city of Chicago, received just over $1 million in revenue based on an additional 2% levy on all operator revenue from bets placed within the county.

FanDuel drives mobile monthly records higher

Running 2023 YTD Top 10 #Sports Betting Grips (incl. Feb in CAPS)

1 NEW YORK $3.27 billion
2 Ohio $1.13B
3 New Jersey $1.08 billion

4 Illinois $1.07 billion <-NEW

5 Nevada $935.8M
6 INDIANA $783.3M
7 MARYLAND $780.9M
8 Pennsylvania $772.3 million
9 Colorado $547.2M
10 Virginia $513.2 million#GamblingTwitter

— Chris Altruda (@AlTruda73) March 14, 2023

For the second straight month, FanDuel set an all-time monthly record for traditional holds, raising the standard to nearly $371.6 million. It completed double setting a new monthly government standard for revenue and claimed nearly $46.4 million in January as it posted a 12.4% win rate on a closed handle of $374.6 million.

More than 62% of that revenue came from accumulator bets, with the online titan collecting $28.9 million from such bets and posting a robust 21.5% share of over $134.6 million in accumulator games accepted. It was the seventh straight month that FanDuel held at least 20% of parlays while the handle broke the previous record it set in October of just under $111 million.

FanDuel’s perennial foil DraftKings was the only other mobile operator to post nine-digit total revenue with $331.4 million, trailing only October’s $338.8 million for its busiest month. DraftKings had a more modest 7.5% win rate and $24.9 million in revenue. As with FanDuel, more than half of its revenue came from betting games, with the operator winning $13.3 million on such bets with a win rate of 14.9%.

BetRivers was third at $96.6 million, but its parlay handle almost quadrupled from December to $24.5 million and accounted for 25.2% of its completed handle, compared to 6.9 % in the previous month. Revenue was relatively flat month-over-month at $7.3 million, up less than $31,000.

Statewide parlay earnings in January totaled $54.6 million, the third-highest total in state history, while parlay handles topped $300 million for the first time in Illinois, with the traditional handle totaling 303 was $.5 million.

PointsBet started the year strong with fourth place in both handling ($72.7 million) and revenue ($4.6 million). It was the fourth straight month that the Australia-based book raked in $70 million in accepted wagers, while revenue grew 37.5% as its 6.3% win rate was more than 2 percentage points better than December.

Caesars Sportsbook posted an all-time high of $57.6 million for the third straight month, beating BetMGM in fifth place by less than $700,000. Bettors kept the Emperor and his house under 4%, while Caesars with just $2.3 million in revenue ended up.

BetMGM closed on less than $4 million on less than $53,000, and while Barstool Sportsbook finished last for the third straight month with $46.7 million, its 7.2% win rate bested the PENN Entertainment Book made a soft landing at sixth in revenue among the seven mobile operators at more than $3.4 million.

Soccer is the sport with the highest turnover

The top 10 of all time #Sports Betting handles post-PASPA (February in CAPS)

1 New Jersey $34.8 billion
2 Nevada $30.4 billion
3 NEW YORK $19.9 billion

4 Illinois $19.73 billion <-NEW

5 Pennsylvania $19.66 billion
6 INDIANA $11.3B
7 Colorado $10.8 billion
8 Michigan $9.4 billion
9 Virginia $8.7B
10 Arizona (Dec) $7.8 billion#GamblingTwitter

— Chris Altruda (@AlTruda73) March 14, 2023

Taking parlay betting out of the equation, Illinois bettors seemed to be doing better on single event bets as the hold for such bets was just 5.4% on $771 million in wagers. Soccer was the top contributor among sports at nearly $15 million, followed by basketball at $12.2 million.

The public held the house at a 3.6% win rate of $338.1 million bets on baskets compared to a 6.8% hold of $221.1 million in football bets. The Australian Open may have proved pivotal by setting a new record for the handle as the calendar year’s first tennis major lifted the sport’s handle to $77.2 million, more than double what it was in December. Tennis also ranked third in operator revenue with nearly $5.5 million and a 7.1% win rate.

The Other catch-all category ranked fourth in non-parlay revenue with nearly $4.1 million, while football revenue hit nearly $2.9 million thanks to a 7.6% win rate to round out the top 5.

PointsBet gets a boost from the new OTB book

PointsBet had its best month in terms of retail execution, boosted by the opening of its third off-track sportsbook in Villa Park. The combined $3.8 million from track and OTB venues was an increase of nearly $1.1 million from December and surpassed the previous record $3.2 million set in January 2022 posted a 12.1% increase in sales to nearly $247,000.

Rivers reclaimed its usual place as the top revenue generator among brick and mortar sportsbooks, ending with more than $1.2 million from $14 million. Casino Queen, which won awards in December, fell to #2 in December as the DraftKings-powered book closed with nearly $575,000 in sales and a 10.2% win rate.

PENN Entertainment’s Barstool books in Joliet and Aurora grossed just over $511,000, while FanDuel’s book in Fairmount Park topped all retail operators with a 20.7% share and profits of $411,000 earned US dollars. Bettors fared far better in East Peoria, capping Par-A-Dice’s sportsbook to a meager $3,650 in revenue of nearly $1.2 million, resulting in a 0.3% turnout.