A robust month for sports betting in Indiana brought about another record handle and also a really impressive hold percentage.
The November 2020 numbers are in and they were quite big for the state. A total of $251,403,994 was bet on sports across the Hoosier State and the state was able to hold $25,328,161. For the state coffers, that meant an influx of more than $2.4 million in tax revenue.
As we know, Indiana is a big basketball state. Those numbers are predominantly without college basketball, which started just before the Thanksgiving holiday. With the pushed back college football schedule that will run through more than half of December and then also feature bowl games, we should see a fourth straight month of significant growth in the betting handle and revenue.
Basketball accounted for $17 million the betting handle in November. The NBA starts December 22 and we’ll see lots of basketball bets once the calendar flips to 2021 and college football and the NFL are just about finished.
Indiana was a little bit less restrictive than other states with regards to the COVID-19 pandemic in November and the state’s sports betting operators actually pulled in over $37.7 million in retail handle. For those doing the quick math, that means that nearly $213.7 million in wagers was taken online or with mobile apps.
It isn’t the least bit surprising to see nearly 85% of the handle from online and mobile. States that have online and mobile capabilities make betting so much easier for their citizenry and it is astonishing that not all states allow online and mobile betting and that more states haven’t made a bigger push to adopt sports betting legislation.
The leading operator in Indiana was once again DraftKings. The Ameristar East Chicago property, which also gave out a license to theScore Bet, took the most handle at $103,687,824. The Blue Chip Casino was second with just shy of $66 million as a FanDuel operator.
BetMGM, PointsBet, and BetRivers wound up being third, fourth, and fifth, but a distant third, fourth, and fifth at that. BetRivers, who was actually the first to launch online and mobile wagering about 14 months ago in Indiana, took in less than $11 million in handle.
William Hill started up online and mobile betting in Indiana last month. Their online handle outpaced Caesars and Unibet, but still trailed all of the other operators by several million dollars. We’ll see if they get more traction going forward.
By the end of 2020, Indiana will have seen more than $2 billion in wagers since officially launching legalized sports betting.
Lastly, Indiana could be adopting online casinos in Q1 of 2021. The great returns from sports betting have led to a push for online casinos and that legislation will be on the agenda during the first legislative session of the New Year.
With states desperate to pull in tax revenue anywhere they can find it, Indiana continues to show the nation the benefits of legalized sports betting and expansions of gambling and we can only hope that more states follow suit.
