The latest monthly revenue report from the Illinois Gaming Board has revealed that the state’s sportsbooks accepted an all-time record of $971 million in wagers throughout the month of March.
Illinois set a new record for the highest monthly total for any state outside of New Jersey, Nevada and New York.
Illinois sports betting during the month of March was driven largely by NCAA basketball betting as local gamblers wagered big on the March Madness tournament. Wagers on basketball for the month totaled over $540 million, more than 55% of the all bets placed during the month. Of this total, $286.2 million was wagered on the men’s and women’s NCAA tournaments while wagering on all college sports amounted to $350.8 million for the month.
The month of March saw gross sports wagering revenue amount to nearly $62 million while adjusted gross revenue (AGR) came in at just over $60.6 million. Asa result, state taxes came to almost $9.1 million for the month.
Betting activity increased by 43% compared to February when sportsbooks reported accepting $679.3 million in wagers. Revenue for the month increased by 70.3% compared to the previous month.
BetMGM launches, FanDuel dominates
BetMGM is the first new mobile sports betting operator to launch in the state in a year and the company enjoyed a relatively successful first month reporting a handle of $43.6 million. This was enough to beat Caesars but was well behind the market leader FanDuel which reported accepting over $310.7 million in wagers. This was the first time that a sports betting operator broke the $300 million mark in a single month in the state’s history.
DraftKings followed with a handle of $284.2 million while BetRivers posted a figure of $105.9 million, the only other sportsbook to break the $100 million mark for the month.
Retail sports betting
Rivers Casino was the Illinois sports betting retail market leader once again as it accepted over $21.6 million in wagers during March. This accounted for almost half of all retail wagers made in the state which totaled $43.7 million. Overall revenue for the retail sector came to $3.1 million with Rivers Casino making up $1.4 million of that figure.
Casino Queen was Rivers’ closest competitor with a retail handle of just under $5 million which resulted in revenue of over $870,000. This was followed up by Argosy Casino Alton which reported accepting $3.6 million in wagers during the month resulting in revenue of just $435,000.
Image credit: Luis Blanco / CC BY 2.0
An experienced iGaming commentator and analyst based in New York City - Jenny reports on regulation and gambling industry news and events.