Sportsbooks Cross $300M In Operator Revenue For Just The Fourth Time Since Mid-2018
By a Biometrica staffer
Monthly operator revenue at sportsbooks across the country came in at $318 million in June, the highest nationwide win rate for this year, and only the fourth time that the number has clocked in higher than $300 million since the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA) law was struck down, US Bets reported on Monday, Aug. 9. The operator revenue and $48.4 million in tax receipts for June were both also the third-highest monthly totals in the post-PASPA era.
In May, operators claimed $255 million in revenue, down 4.2% from April’s $266.1 million, while the amount that went into tax coffers also dipped slightly to about $39.4 million in May from $39.8 million in April, a US Bets article from July said.
With that, for the first half of this year there has been over $24.2 billion worth of wagers, which has translated into more than $1.75 billion in operator revenue. These amounts have, in turn, generated over $260 million in tax revenue for the state governments (and the District of Columbia) where sports betting is legal. For all of 2020, those three numbers came in at $21.5 billion (wagers), $1.47 billion (operator revenue), and $241 million (tax revenue).
On their part, bettors wagered around $3.68 billion in June, compared with about $3.72 billion in May. The number for May, in turn, was an increase of 0.4% from April.
The national win rate for June was 8.64%, the fifth-highest of the 37 months post-PASPA and easily clearing the previous 2021 high of 8.23% set in January, US Bets said in its report. The “hold” (or win rate) nationwide was 6.86% in May compared to 7.19% in April.
Hold refers to the amount of money the house holds or keeps after all bets are paid out. June’s win rate was weighed down by Nevada’s hold of 5.35%, the report added. The hold climbed substantially in five of the six largest states — New Jersey, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Indiana — with Nevada again proving to be a group outlier.
Baseball betting, especially in Las Vegas, made an impact in the monthly numbers for June according to the report. A post-PASPA monthly high of $226.2 million was wagered, but the hold was just 1.41% as operators claimed only $3.2 million in revenue. Meanwhile, in Illinois, basketball revenue climbed 39.3% to nearly $9.6 million despite a 17.1% drop in handle.
Meanwhile, legislation to license and tax sports betting in North Carolina cleared another state Senate committee on Monday. It was approved by the finance committee last week, and still needs to clear two more Senate panels before heading to the floor for a full vote. If the bill passes the Senate and House, and if Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper signs it into law, the North Carolina Education Lottery commission pans to issue 10 to 12 interactive sports wagering operator licenses.