The Hoosier State continues to punch above its weight class when it comes to sports betting, becoming the seventh state in the post-PASPA era to surpass $500 million in single-month handle, according to January figures released Friday by the Indiana Gaming Commission.
Indiana joins New York, New Jersey, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and neighbors Illinois and Michigan in the select group to cross the half-billion handle threshold, doing so by a mere $138,648. It bettered the previous state record of $463.7 million established in November and saw an increase of 8% from December’s handle of $463 million.
The increased handle helped improve adjusted gross revenue by 38% month-over-month to $35.6 million. The January revenue haul was also enough to make Indiana just the fifth state to clear $500 million in all-time operator gross revenue, along with New Jersey, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Illinois.
The state received nearly $3.4 million in taxes for January, marking the third time in 29 months of accepting wagers that tax receipts were at least $3 million. Indiana has accumulated just shy of $50 million in state taxes since launch in September 2019.
DK finally knocks FD from revenue top spot
January #SportsBetting numbers for #Indiana via IGC:
Handle: ⬆️8% vs 12/21; ⬆️43.6% vs 1/21
Revenue: ⬆️38% vs 12/21; ⬆️21.3% vs 1/21
Win Rate: +1.54 pts vs 12/21; -1.31 vs 1/212/x #GamblingTwitter
— Chris Altruda (@AlTruda73) February 11, 2022
DraftKings maintained its status as Indiana’s undefeated king of handle with more than $159.8 million worth of wagers in January, but for the first time since April it also hit the double as the top revenue generator, with close to $9.5 million for its best month in the Hoosier State. FanDuel, which had outperformed its eternal rival by $17.6 million in that eight-month span as No. 1, posted $7.6 million in revenue while setting its own top monthly handle figure at $126.4 million.
The shuffling did not stop there, as Caesars narrowly beat out BetMGM for third in handle, the first time since June 2020 that BetMGM was not among the top three in that category. Both operators posted all-time handle highs with $54.9 million and $53.2 million, respectively, while BetMGM also set a new standard for revenue with nearly $5 million thanks to a 9.3% hold.
Overall, five mobile operators set all-time monthly highs for handle, as BetRivers ($16.8 million) and PointsBet ($16 million) also accomplished the feat. Both of them, however, placed behind Barstool Sportsbook, which rounded out the top five in handle with $18.9 million.
Caesars and PointsBet also cleared $10 million in monthly handle, with Caesars’ 2.6% win rate the second lowest among the seven books that posted eight-figure handles. Barstool finished eighth in revenue among the 12 mobile operators with $208,630, as bettors limited the Penn National Gaming outfit to a 1.1% hold to ring in 2022.
Unibet was the lone mobile operator to finish in the red in January, paying out $2,853 more than the nearly $2.9 million in wagers accepted. It was the second time in four months bettors came out ahead versus Unibet and the fifth time in 19 months since its launch in July 2020.
Bengals help hand Hollywood Lawrenceburg an ‘L’
More than a few bettors apparently made their way from Cincinnati across the state line to Hollywood Lawrenceburg to bet on the Bengals during their run to the Super Bowl, as the state’s top retail sportsbook took its worst loss since launch. The public came out $120,845 ahead on more than $13.2 million wagered, marking just the second time Hollywood finished a month with a loss.
Football accounted for nearly one-quarter of the statewide January handle, totaling $118.3 million. Aside from providing that detail, the IGC does not break out revenue by sport or category in its monthly reports.
Hollywood was not the only casino near the Ohio border taking Bengals action, as both Belterra and Rising Sun reported losses to start the year. Belterra had the worst win rate of any retail sportsbook to open 2022 at -8.1%, paying out $58,369 more than the $725,092 in wagers. Rising Sun was closer to even in January, losing $3,542 on $258,496 in bets.
Indiana’s two horse racing tracks and three Winner’s Circle locations for off-track sports wagering picked up the slack, though, posting a strong 12% hold on $9.7 million handle to collect nearly $1.2 million in revenue. That lifted the overall retail hold to 7.1% as operators claimed nearly $3 million from $41.8 million wagered.
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