May Was A Bad Month For Nevada Sportsbooks, As Bettors Win Big On NBA And Handle Drops


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Nba betting nevada May

There was little to write home about for Nevada sportsbooks after the totals were added up for May.

Handle was down in May for the second straight year, on a year-over-basis. And betters took the books to the clears on betting on the NBA, to the tune of more than $4 million.

Still, the news wasn’t all bad, as the handle decrease was minimal, and books totaled nearly $3 million in revenue for the month.

Nevada sports betting handle = $311 million

Nevada sports betting handle has been slightly down in the past couple months, in the wake of a record March. There was a slight YoY downtick in April.

And here’s the trend for May:

Of course, those numbers should be viewed through the lens of May 2014, when handle clocked in at just $226 million. Given that huge upswing, the relative plateau of the past few years doesn’t look so bad.

That was a bad month for the books and basketball

The books can look at the NBA for a bad revenue month. Losing $4.4 million to the betting public is a record, according to ESPN.

The books’ hold of $6.6 million for bets on baseball more than offset that, however. They won $2.4 million on more minor sports like golf and boxing.

Another $1.6 million went out of the books for old football bets still being collected.

Still, at just under $3 million in revenue is one of the worst overall months in recent memory. Sportsbooks haven’t lost money since July 2013 ($547,000). This is only the fourth time since that date that the books have won under $3 million. Most months see revenue well in excess of $10 million, these days.

The big fight will help later this summer

This month, we learned that Las Vegas will host a fight between boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr. and UFC fighter Conor McGregor.

This fight — not scheduled until August — has attracted tons of betting action. It should help propel the books into the always busy NFL season.