Illinois Finally Clears $1 Billion Mark
The Illinois Gaming Board has finally announced the October sports betting numbers for the state, and the Land of Lincoln was finally able to join an exclusive group. With a total sports betting handle of $1.03 billion, the state is now just the fourth state to ever go over $1 billion in a month.
Illinois becomes the first state in the Midwest portion of the U.S. to go over the total, and it has joined Nevada, New Jersey, and New York. The previous monthly handle record in Illinois was set in March as college basketball betting helped boost the numbers to more than $971 million.
Illinois still came in third place for the month of October, but it once again put a ton of pressure on New Jersey. The total sports betting handle in October was a 24% increase from the September numbers, and betting is up over 80% since August.
Some of those numbers are a bit skewed as action always increases during the football season, but Illinois has also seen an increase of 20% year-over-year. What makes this number even more impressive is the fact that Illinois has not had any new sportsbooks launch since all the way back in March.
With a big October, Illinois remains in fourth place in lifetime sports betting handle since the fall of PASPA in 2018. New York is going to move ahead of Illinois soon, but the Land of Lincoln will also be flipping spots with the state of Pennsylvania.
Revenue Number Two in US
Not only was it a big month in terms of betting action in the state, but sportsbooks also had a profitable month as well. Illinois sportsbooks posted a win rate of 8.9% for the month of October and it pushed the monthly revenue to $91.5 million.
Sportsbooks in Illinois have had a big year overall as the state trails just New York in terms of yearly revenue through the month of October. Over $16 million was paid back to the state in the form of tax revenue, and that’s the biggest reason for legalizing this industry in the first place.
DraftKings Sees Action, FanDuel Posts Wins
When it comes to choosing the top operators in the state has continued to be a two-operator race between DraftKings and FanDuel. Seven of the biggest operators in the industry are now live in Illinois, but the other five just can’t keep up with the leaders.
DraftKings posted a sports betting handle of $345.3 million to lead the way in October, and FanDuel was second on the list at 327.8 million. FanDuel had a huge edge in terms of total revenue as it brought in $41.6 million and DraftKings was next on the list at $21.2 million.
BetRivers did have a good month as well, posting a hold rate at right around 10 percent.
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