Illinois Keeps a Great Pace with $839 million Handle in April

April was a great month for sports betting in Illinois. Although totals dropped from the month before, Illinois was still able to bring in over $839 million from bettors. The state has been enjoying a lot of activity with its number of bettors, who have pushed the state into the top three year-to-date earnings throughout the entire country.

Illinois was the last state to publish its earnings, but the totals didn’t disappoint. It had a record-breaking March handle of $971 million, so April’s $839 million was still a 14% drop.

Betting activity in most states will probably continue to drop until the NFL season returns, so we’ll see if Illinois will be able to maintain its impressive pace towards a $4 billion year-to-date handle.

Bumped up to third

Currently, Illinois has the 3rd highest handle of all the states, which came to $3.36 billion with April’s handle included. In 2nd place, New Jersey has racked up a total of $4.38 billion in sports bets since the beginning of the year. Of course, the highest handle is New York’s. The state has brought in $6.26 billion throughout 2022, and will probably continue to lead by a fair margin throughout the year.

Illinois’ April handle was mainly made up through online sports betting. Online wagering accounted for $810 million of the $839 million total, making up roughly 96% percent of the wagers. This increase in online betting is probably thanks to BetMGM, as April was the first full month of the company’s operation in the state.

BetMGM, being the seventh mobile sports operator to enter the state, beat the handles of both Caesar’s Sportsbook and Barstool Sportsbook with its own $50.8 million handle.

Mobile wagering brings in the money

FanDuel and DraftKings are still the top two leaders of the state’s sports betting market. FanDuel brought in around $287.9 million in bets with its Fairmont Park license, giving it the top spot in Illinois. DraftKings brought in about $217.7 million with its Casino Queen East St. Louis license.

With the operators’ combined total of over $500 million in bets, they took over 60% of the month’s total handle throughout the state, and paid out $7.8 million in taxes. This left them with a combined revenue of over $42 million.

Total breakdown

According to the Illinois Gaming Board, the April revenue for sports betting came to $70.5 million, which beat its March revenue of around $60.6 million, even with the lower handle. In taxes, the state has collected about $10.6 million for the month, bringing its total tax collection for the year to almost $35 million.

Due to the NBA Playoffs and NCAA championship, basketball contributed the greatest to sports betting throughout the month. The sport brought in $291.6 million in bets. Behind basketball, parlays brought in $190.2 million, and baseball came in third place with $135.5 million.

Parlay betting has proved to be pretty popular throughout the state, as it has produced close to $120 million in revenue throughout the year so far.