Nevada sports betting set a new record for handle with its best month in history this September. Sportsbooks took more than $558 million in bets in the month to start the NFL season.
More on Nevada sportsbooks’ big month
There’s a lot to unpack from the Nevada Gaming Control Board‘s numbers on September for sports betting.
- It was the best month for handle ever in the state. September just surpassed November of 2015, when there was $557.4 million in handle.
- It was the best September on record by a wide margin. Handle last year came in at $440 million, an increase of nearly $120 million year over year. And in the years before that, handle in the month had actually been down or relatively flat.
- Handle had only eclipsed half a billion five times before. The first time it happened was November of 2014.
Some of the handle was actually from tickets cashed from the August super-fight between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Conor McGregor. But even so, it was nothing short of an outstanding month for the books in terms of handle.
Handle continues to increase as nearly every casinos continue to roll out out and increase marketing of mobile wagering. Caesars was the latest, with a soft launch in September.
Revenue for Nevada sports betting was pretty good too
Handle wasn’t the only place where the books excelled. They also generated more than $44.4 million in revenue. It was the state’s third best month in terms of hold and best since 2014.
The vast majority of that came from betting on football, as wagering on NFL and college games clocked in at more than $40 million in revenue. The books boasted a hold percentage on all bets in excess of 11 percent.
That is the first time Nevada books have ever held more than $40 million of football wagering in a single month.
The books also won nearly $6 million from parlay cards and $4 million from baseball wagering. They gave back more than $5 million on bets falling under the “other” category, mostly from the aforementioned fight.
What’s next for Nevada sports betting?
October and November are historically the biggest months for the sportsbooks. Handle in 2016 eclipsed half a billion dollars in each of those months last year.
After huge months this month and last, could we see Nevada handle eclipse $600 million for the first time in history?