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Illinois Posts A Record $633m Handle in The Last Month of Remote Registrations
By Jeff Osienya May 11, 2021 IndustryAfter a record-smashing $600 million March handle, Illinois’ sports betting scene will likely struggle henceforth with in-person registration back in play. March’s showing had cemented its position as the 3rd largest US sports betting market.Thanks to the temporarily lifted in-person registration restriction, Illinois’ monthly sports betting handle blew past $600 million in March for the first time ever. During the entire month, sports bettors in the state spent a total of $633 million in sports wagers to set a new monthly record high. The numbers were recently released by the Illinois Gaming Board (IGB).
March’s handle was a stellar 24.3% improvement compared to February, whose handle had dropped to $509.8 million after a record-setting $581.6 million January handle. Further, the daily average volume of sports wagers for the 31 days of March was a whopping $20.1 million. In doing so, The Prairie State hit another milestone of blowing past $3 billion in its lifetime handle, bringing the total amount spent on wagers to $3.6 billion since the activity went live in March last year.
The tremendous performance in March also shattered records for operators’ revenue in The Prairies State. January’s $49.4 million revenue was edged by a whisker after March’s action brought in $49.9 million for operators. This resulted in a taxable revenue of $44.3 million after 7.0% holds, which in turn generated $6.6 million for state coffers and over $493K in local taxes.
Basketball Catapults Illinois Sports Betting to Its Best Numbers Yet
Predictably, the long-awaited March Madness tournament was a big booster mainly since bettors in the state are avid fans of the hoops. Overall, basketball contributed to $365.7 million of the sports wagers placed in March. What makes this even more interesting is the fact that it is the only sport that had a handle of over $100 million.
Moreover, according to an April statement IGB Administrator Marcus Fruchter during a preliminary IGB meeting, almost 50% of the basketball handle was collected from wagers on the March Madness tournament. At that time, the preliminary figures showed that over $176.8 million had been wagered on the college basketball event. When the final tally is released, this figure will likely go beyond $200 million.
Better yet, one of the other most significant achievements for The Prairie state for March is that the state got to maintain its number 3 position as the third-largest legal US sports betting market. In February, Illinois narrowly edged out Pennsylvania by about $300K worth of wagers to rise to the third-best performing state in US rankings for the very first time.
Owing to March’s incredible performance, Illinoisans proved themselves after spending more money on wagers than Pennsylvanians for the second month back-to-back. And this time, it was a clean defeat as the Keystone State saw a handle of $560.3 million in that month. Meanwhile, Illinois’ $633 million handle for March closed in on Nevada, the second-best performer, which saw wagers worth $641 million for the same month. On the other hand, New Jersey maintained its strong national lead in March as sports bettors spent a total of $859.6 million.
The Axing of Remote Registrations Will Hurt Sports Betting in Illinois
However, as impressive as the numbers for March were, it is hard to say whether the monthly sports betting handle will hit such highs any time soon. Governor J.B. Pritzker of Illinois finally closed the window of temporary remote registrations on April 3rd, citing that there was no need for it anymore. According to The Prairie State’s constitution, sports bettors in the state will have to wait for 7 more months before they can create a new sports betting account remotely.
So, the most unfortunate bit about March’s shining performance is that Illinois’ number 3 position among the largest US sports betting markets will likely last for the two months alone. Considering that over 96% ($609 million) of wagers in March were placed online, the fact that players can no longer register remotely is a threat to The Prairie State’s winning streak.
The volume of online wagers also set a new record in March, and so did revenue won from online sports betting. Illinois’ online sports betting revenue came in at $41.8 million, versus the $2.5 million revenue generated by retail facilities.
Looking at a sportsbook-by-sportsbook analysis for the online performance, Nasdaq-listed DraftKings led the pack after collecting 33.5% of the total with a $203.9 million handle. FanDuel followed DraftKings at a distant second place with a 32% share of the online handle after facilitating $194.9 million worth of bets. Finally, BetRivers rounded up the top 3 highflyers in Illinois after collecting $95.7 million in sports bets, accounting for only 15.7% of March’s online handle.
The Barstool Sportsbook gets an honorable mention in the online sports betting rankings of The Prairie State as it managed to capture 7.8% of the market with a handle of $47.8 million. Barstool managed to get a hold of such a significant piece of Illinois’ sports betting pie despite operating for only 21 days in its debut month in the state.
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