Interesting Month for Iowa Sports Betting

It looks like June kept the trend of a falling handle for Iowa sports betting. According to numbers recently put out by the Iowa Racing and Gaming Control Commission, Iowa’s June handle came to $122.4 million. This is a bit of a drop from the state’s May handle, which was 17% higher.

Even so, the Iowa sports betting industry is still doing much better than it was around this time last year. In 2021, Iowa’s June handle came to $111.2 million, so this is around a 10% increase year-on-year. Although the handle dropped, sports bettors can have faith that the industry will remain strong, as many states see a handle drop over the summer.

In terms of revenue, Iowa sportsbooks brought home $6.6 million for the entire month. The hold rate for the month was also lower than May’s hold rate. In May, operators saw a handle of $147.9 million and a hold rate of 8.5%. In June, the hold rate came to around 5.4%.

Behind Iowa Sports Betting

Sports betting operators get a pretty good deal with their Iowa operations. The tax rate for the state is only 6.75%, which is one of the lowest in the entire country. Also, the initial sports betting license fee was only $45,000. Compared to other states, operations in Iowa are pretty much a steal.

Sports betting operators seem to agree, as there are 18 of them in the entire state, which is a pretty large number compared to other states. This can probably be attributed to the amazing numbers stated above. One sportsbook seemed to disagree, though.

June was theScore Bet’s last month in Iowa, as they have recently been bought out by Penn National Gaming. theScore Bet also saw a drop this month, with its handle coming to only $34,640. This is quite the dip from May, when the sportsbook saw $222,366. Such a drop might be due to the sportsbook’s announcement of their leave from the state.

Where the Money Came From

Most of the money wagered was put towards online sports betting. In fact, $111.9 million of the $122.4 million was bet online. The rest was bet through retail sportsbooks, and that handle came to $10.5 million.

FanDuel performed the best in the entire state, with a revenue of $1.9 million and a $31 million handle. After FanDuel came DraftKings, who also performed fairly well. DraftKings saw a $15.4 million handle through their partner Diamond Jo in Worth. They also saw $746,039 in revenue from their partner Wild Rose in Jefferson.

After FanDuel and DraftKings came Caesar’s in third place, who brought in $22.7 million in wagers. In taxes, the state saw one of the lowest numbers in Iowa’s sports betting history. This was a total of $447,000. This number is probably thanks to the state’s very low tax rate of 6.75%, so the government can’t really complain.

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