Illinois sports betting operators scored big in November, cracking a 10% hold for the second time and racking up a record $78.2 million in revenue on a near-record handle, data from the Illinois Gaming Board (IGB) show.
November’s handle was $779.9 million — the second-highest total in the market’s history. The handle was up from $449.2 million year-over-year but down from the record $840.2 million seen in October.
Online sports betting brought in the lion’s share of November’s handle — $746 million — while retail sportsbooks operating at the state’s land-based casinos, riverboats, and horse racing tracks accounted for the remaining $33.9 million.
IGB data show the state’s operators rallied for a 10.1% hold in July 2021 and was just a whisker away from 10% the month before. But neither of those months nor November was indicative of the year as a whole — hold averaged 7.95% through 11 months of 2021. Since the market’s inception in March 2020, hold has averaged 7.6%.
The 10% hold from November was up from 9.19% year-over-year and 5.7% in October 2021.
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Wagers on football began to taper off in November with the winding down of the college football season, while basketball surged. Football accounted for $257.2 million in handle for the month, followed by basketball at $226.7 million. Tennis was a distant third at $39.8 million. The IGB said there were $166.4 million in parlay bets made during November.
After subtracting $701.6 million in payouts, the six operators combined for $78.2 million in revenue, up from $41.3 million year-over-year and $48.3 million from October. Revenue from parlay bets was the highest at $44.2 million, followed by football at $21.2 million.
Operators lost about $2.5 million on baseball and $35k on motor racing in November. Game 6 of the World Series — in which the Atlanta Braves won four games to two — was played on November 2. The Braves won, 7-0.
While the IGB doesn’t separate betting on professional sports from college, the regulator reported that about $593 million of November’s handle came from betting on pro sports while $186.6 million came from college sports and $291k was bet on motor racing.
BetRivers, DraftKings, FanDuel Still Top of the Charts
Three operators — BetRivers Sportsbook, DraftKings Sportsbook, and FanDuel Sportsbook — continued to dominate the vertical, both in terms of handle and revenue.
DraftKings, operating on the Casino Queen license, led in terms of handle at $288.7 million but was second banana to FanDuel in revenue at $21.9 million — repeating a pattern from October when DraftKings had a bigger handle but FanDuel made more money off bettors. DraftKings had $11.7 million in revenue in October.
Meanwhile, FanDuel — whose partners include Hawthorne Race Course and Par-A-Dice Hotel Casino — had a $216.8 million handle in November and posted $30.2 million in revenue, up from $236.7 million and $22.3 million in October, respectively.
BetRivers, on the Rivers Casino Des Plaines license, was third by both metrics, grabbing a $127.8 million handle and $13.5 million in revenue. The operator’s handle was down from $135.7 million in October, but revenue was up from $8 million.
Ranked by handle, the remaining operators were Barstool Sports ($67.3 million), PointsBet ($57.4 million), and Caesars ($21.9 million). In terms of revenue, those operators brought in $6.3 million, $5.7 million, and $670k, respectively.
Illinois received $12.7 million in tax revenue in November, up from $8.4 million in October. Through 11 months of 2021, the state has generated $78.4 million in tax revenue from sports betting. Since the market launched, the state has raked in $98.6 million.
