The Illinois Gaming Board reported traditional sports wagering handle of close to $628.5 million for June late Thursday, marking the second consecutive month Illinois narrowly finished behind New Jersey as they vied for the No. 2 spot nationally behind New York.
The gap in June between New Jersey and Illinois was larger than May, but still small at $4.7 million after being separated by $1.8 million previously. Illinois, though, did widen the distance between itself and Nevada for all of 2022, extending its lead in handle to $370 million more than the Silver State. Illinois generated nearly $4.8 billion handle in the first half of 2022 and close to $13.7 billion since accepting its first wagers in March 2020.
The betting public brought operators down a peg by limiting them to a 6.5% win rate in June after back-to-back months with holds of 8.4% and higher. The $40.9 million in operator revenue was 39.4% lower compared to May’s $67.5 million and the second lowest of the year, ahead of only the $35.6 million claimed in February. Handle dipped 17.8% versus May but was still 70.3% higher compared to June 2021.
The state collected $6.1 million in taxes, pushing the total for the year above $51 million. Cook County, which receives 2% in taxes from all revenue on wagers made within county limits — which includes the city of Chicago — collected nearly $450,000 in receipts from more than $22.3 million in revenue.
BetRivers holds off PointsBet for third
FanDuel and DraftKings were 1-2 for mobile handle, maintaining the status quo by combining for nearly $385 million between them and close to 65% of the overall wagers made via online and smartphone. But the remaining 35% spread among the state’s other five operators has become more contested as newcomer BetMGM continues to assert itself and BetRivers may not be marketing its parlay offerings as aggressively as its rivals.
BetRivers’ $60.9 million handle was its smallest since accepting $59.1 million in wagers in July 2021. It also finished last among operators when it came to parlay handle at less than $3.9 million — accounting for just 6.3% of its handle.
By comparison, Caesars Sportsbook had the next-smallest percentage at 14.7%. It has had parlays represent 8.9% or higher of its mobile handle in each of the four months it has offered parlays since completing its migration from William Hill in March. Since launching in March, BetMGM has had at least 16.4% of its monthly handle derive from parlays.
PointsBet was a close fourth with $52.7 million in wagers, with BetMGM rounding out the top five at $37.8 million. Barstool Sportsbook fended off Caesars for sixth, generating nearly $35.9 million handle to the $32.6 million from Caesars.
Parlay handle totaled $140.2 million, the second-largest amount in any category the IGB provides in its reporting, as the total bet for the year cleared $1 billion. FanDuel accounted for nearly half of June’s parlay handle at $62.2 million, with DraftKings a distant second at $41.1 million.
A surprising third in overall handle was tennis, with late-round French Open and early round Wimbledon wagering helping drive a record $86.5 million that was bet on it. FanDuel accounted for nearly one-third of that total with $28.7 million wagered, with a good portion of it appearing to come via in-play wagering. The IGB does not break out Tier 2 wagering by sport, but FanDuel’s $103.9 million overall handle for in-play betting was some $40 million better than second-place DraftKings.
Both FanDuel and PointsBet hit notable all-time handle milestones, with FanDuel the second mobile operator to clear $4 billion in Illinois along with DraftKings. The Aussie-based PointsBet became the fourth book to cross the $1 billion threshold, with BetRivers already accomplishing that feat.
FanDuel claims another handle-revenue double
FanDuel again did the double of top handle and top revenue in Illinois, claiming $16.6 million while posting an 8.2% win rate. It finished just shy of $11 million in parlay revenue, with its 17.7% hold there actually dragging its year-to-date hold below 21% following a 25.6% win rate in April and 29.7% in May.
DraftKings totaled $9 million in revenue, posting a 4.9% hold on $183.2 million handle. BetRivers was the only other online operator to clear $3 million, finishing with $4.8 million and a 7.8% hold. DraftKings, Caesars, and BetMGM all had sub-5% holds, with BetMGM customers possibly continuing to use their risk-free promotional wagers on parlays.
BetMGM had a paltry 1.2% win rate on parlays, claiming less than $84,000 in June. That still represented a marked improvement, as it had totaled just $450 in revenue over the first three months in the category. BetMGM has an overall 0.3% hold on close to $32 million worth of parlay bets.
In revenue by category, parlays ruled the roost with more than $20.2 million on a 14.4% hold — 15.1% when excluding BetMGM. Operators claimed nearly $6 million in revenue from baseball wagers, but with only a 2.7% hold on $221.8 million that was bet. The bump in tennis handle contributed a third-place finish in revenue at $4.1 million, while hockey was fourth at $3.8 million thanks in large part to a 14.3% hold — the highest of any month with at least $10 million wagered.
Basketball rounded out the top five revenue spots at $3.2 million, and soccer ($2.2 million) and golf ($1.4 million) rounded out the sports with seven-figure revenue totals.
