Illinois Almost Catches New Jersey in June Sports Betting
When the state of New York flew past New Jersey in sports betting figures earlier this year, it was assumed that New Jersey would stay comfortably in second place. That is no longer the case and it looks as if Illinois is about to take over that position.
While the month of June was tough for sportsbooks all throughout the country, Illinois bettors continued to wager more consistently than in other states. Illinois posted a total sports betting handle of $628.5 million, which was less than $5 million of the New Jersey total.
On the other side of that, Illinois has now created a large gap between it and the state of Nevada for third place. Illinois is going to continue to post massive handle totals to round out the 2022 year, and it’s expected that Illinois will eventually jump into second place.
There are some states that are already announcing July totals, but the Illinois Gaming Board is always one of the last states to announce. The sports betting win rate for sportsbooks was just 6.5% for the month of June, which kept the overall revenue numbers down.
Illinois was still able to bring in more than $6 million in tax revenue for the month of June and that total is now up over $51 million for the year. Total sports betting revenue dropped by around 40% from what was brought in during May.
Baseball Brings the Action
Most states throughout the country see lower sports betting numbers in July because Major League Baseball is not an attractive betting market. Illinois doesn’t have that problem as there are two very popular MLB teams in the city of Chicago.
The total handle for the sport of baseball was over $221 million for the month of July, and operators won less than three percent of those wagers. Parlay wagering was the second most popular betting option in July as the total was over $140 million.
Tennis was a popular sport to wager on in the state of Illinois in June as well, and that was a bit of a shock. That sport brought in the third-most amount of wagers in the month as the total handle was almost $70 million.
No Stopping FanDuel Sportsbook
There are only seven online sportsbooks live in the state of Illinois, but they are seven of the biggest online operators in the industry. That has created plenty of competition, but it is FanDuel Sportsbook that is clearly setting the tone in Illinois.
FanDuel was the leader in both handle and revenue and it has continued to widen its lead in recent months. DraftKings was in second place in both categories and the two sports betting leaders made up 65% of the total handle and also dominated in the total revenue.
The race for third place is heating up in the state as BetRivers and Caesars Sportsbook are both in a battle.
