Indiana Breaks Sports Betting Handle In January
Published February 26, 2021 by Sol FH
The NBA and the NFL playoffs have taken Indiana's sports betting handle to new heights.
The state of Indiana has set new sports betting handle records in January, as reported by the Indiana Gaming Commission. Online sports betting has been legal in the state since 2016, and in spite of a relatively slow start, things are really starting to pick up.
The gross revenue from online sports gambling in January was USD $29.3m, which is an increase of 127.1% from the December 2020 totals. The totals were also a shock to many as the previous record, set in November 2020 was 15.8% less (USD$25.3m).
With so many popular sporting events happening simultaneously in January 2021, the NFL Playoffs, the NBA, and others enabled Indiana punters to wager $348.2m on sports. Year-on-year, that more than doubled the $170.8m that was bet in 2020.
The state made a lot of money from tax revenue, taking in $2.8m, which is also more than double its take from January 2020.
Indiana Loves its Basketball
Indiana has a "Basketball Jones." The NBA and college basketball drew in more bets than ever before. Punters from Indiana placed USD $133.2m on the hardcourt, which was almost double the amount wagered on the NFL ($77.6m), and, baseball with a relatively modest $56,800.
One of the favored markets to play in Indiana is Parlay betting, which accounted for $86.1m. Other wagering markets reached $50.3m.
The biggest operators in the Indiana legal online gambling industry are Penn National and their DraftKings sportsbook, FanDuel, BetRivers, BetAmerica, and BetMGM. DraftKings won the revenue race with more customers than any other of the aforementioned names.
Penn National and its DraftKing's bookmaker were high and above the competition with a handle of $134.4m. In second place was Fanduel and Blue Chip Casino, which made $6.2m and a handle of $90.6m.
Indiana is a great example of how a modestly populated state can generate huge numbers in the iGaming industry and should have more states taking an example from them.
