Illinois Posts April Handle Down 15.2% Month-over-Month

Following a busy two months for the state of Illinois, April numbers fell from March by around 15.2% of the sports betting handle as the college betting craze has subsided a little.

Sports Betting Handle Goes Down in April 

Even though it took a while, Illinois has finally produced the April sports betting results, which revealed a small drop in total handle month-over-month, which is not too strange given that March is the apex of the college basketball season. 

There was some good news sure, with the announcement that Illinois lawmakers are approving a measure to allow in-state betting on college sports, expanding the reach of the sports gambling results further. Regardless, results in April did drop a bit after a busy football and college sports season. 

With both February and March leading up to some serious betting handle, an inevitable slump came in April, with the total handle falling to around $537 million or 15.2% down. Revenue decreased just as well, but with a mere fraction of 1.6% to $43.6 million. 

Tax revenue stood at $7.1 million in the month – overall, not too bad for Illinois. The total was generated in two installments. The first $6.5 million was based on the 15% tax on sports wagers, with an additional $527,100 generated through the 2% tax on bets in Cook County, covering Chicago. 

Revenue was driven by the online market, which accounted for some $40.9 million of the total and slightly down from March by 2.2%. 

Retail revenue seemed to pick up a bit during the month, with in-person bets increasing by 6.8% to $2.7 million and accounting for some $2.7 million of the revenue. Once again, the same two market leaders dominating the sports betting market, with FanDuel Sportsbook posting $15.8 million in revenue and DraftKings at Casino Queen adding in another $12.2 million.

DraftKings and FanDuel Keep Leadership in IL 

DraftKings and FanDuel have been divvying up the majority of sports betting markets in the United States, consistently holding the leading positions in terms of total revenue. In comparison, Barstool Sportsbook took in only $3.9 million operating out of Hollywood Casino Aurora. FanDuel also recently secured the OpenArena platform by Scientific Games in Indiana and Illinois. 

A Clear Read of All Bets 

Illinois provided detailed information into Tier 1 and Tier 2 bets, which relate to outright bets, such as Moneylines on the one hand, and Props and Points Totals on the other. The total sports betting handle from Tier 1 bets accounted for $238.3 million of all proceeds, with Tier 2 bets overtaking that amount by posting $298.9 million. 

In terms of individual sports popularity, the NBA seemed to lead the way with a handle on the game hitting $164.6 million. Baseball was next with $112.7 million, and soccer surprisingly came third with $28.9 million. 

April’s college betting handle was a modest $22.8 million, with the state still not allowed to bet on in-state college teams at the time. Professional sports betting handle hit $513.9 million. 

The decision to liberalize the online betting market and allow registering an account without in-person signups has also been a contributing factor. Illinois legalized its sports gambling market in March 2020, which coincided with the COVID-19 pandemic, which effectively suspended all sporting events for several months.