US sports betting handle officially hit a new record in September after Nevada reported its fourth-highest handle ever.
Nevada sports betting handle was $575.1 million in September. The Silver State trails just New Jersey in terms of September success after NJ sports betting handle hit nearly $750 million.
Nevada’s total means more than $2.5 billion was bet in the US during September. That topped the previous record of $2.1 billion bet in August.
The new record will be higher than $2.5 billion as well considering we still haven’t seen the Illinois sports betting results from September.
Sports betting revenue for Nevada was $32.9 million in September, good for 5.7% hold.
Football is king for Nevada sports betting
Even though September is the first month where bettors could bet on all four major US sports, there’s no surprise NFL betting remains the leader.
Football accounted for $221.9 million in handle last month. It seems clear the delay to some college football conferences starting play impacted that number after football accounted for $377.5 million in handle last September.
Baseball, which included the final full month of regular season MLB play, took second with $147.3 million.
Basketball, which was in the midst of the NBA Playoffs, was third with $114.8 million in handle. Fifth place was hockey with $25 million in handle for the month as the Tampa Bay Lightning won the Stanley Cup at the end of September.
Staying in front of hockey was the “other” category, which accounted for $60.4 million in total handle.
Mobile NV sports betting share slips
As bettors get more comfortable returning to casinos, Nevada’s mobile sports betting market share continues to fall. It’s important when comparing Nevada to New Jersey to consider that Las Vegas casinos remain limited in capacity and the state’s arcane in-person registration policy limits mobile growth.
Mobile handle market share was 54.9% for September, according to the state report. That’s down from 64.3% in August and 69% from July.
Mobile also accounted for a third of total revenue with $11 million.
Can September hit $3 billion in handle?
It would take an impressive leap from sports betting in Illinois for the US sports betting market to top $3 billion in handle for September.
Illinois recorded $139.8 million in handle for August, which was all but dominated by BetRivers because of the on-again, off-again remote registration exemption from Gov. J.B. Pritzker.
The state would need to exceed $400 million in handle to have a chance of pushing the US beyond $3 billion. That seems like a tall task even with a full month of DraftKings Sportsbook and FanDuel Sportsbook.
The industry got its first glimpse into Illinois’ September results from PointsBet. The Australian-listed sportsbook operator took about $7 million in wagers in less than three weeks.
