Following a record January, Iowa sports betting handle dipped a bit in February.
Iowa sportsbooks took $144 million in wagers, according to an Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission report released Friday. Operators generated $7.7 million in revenue, while the state collected $520,444 in taxes.
Iowa’s in-person registration requirement expired in January 2021, helping fuel the two strong months to start 2021. Mobile betting accounted for 87.2% of bets in February.
Daily handle grows in Iowa
While February was lower than the record $149.5 million bet in January, it was also from three fewer days of action.
Extrapolated to per-day averages, the $5.1 million in February is more than January’s $4.8 million.
Should Iowans maintain that pace, March would set a new monthly record. A strong performance by the University of Iowa basketball team in the NCAA Tournament likely will help this month’s total.
William Hill leads the way
William Hill handled $50 million in bets last month. The sportsbook operator has retail sportsbooks in six hotel partners, include Isle – Waterloo, which took the most bets of any single Iowa casino: $21.8 million.
Other major operators share casino partners:
- BetRivers/DraftKings — Wild Rose casinos: $39.4 million
- BetMGM/FanDuel — Diamond Jo casinos: $33.1 million
Elite facilitated more than $6 million in wagers on its own, with another $1.7 million split with Betfred. PointsBet took more than $5 million in bets.
TheScore launched the state in the middle of the month and handled $851,876 in bets. Iowa doesn’t report promotional credits, but with the Super Bowl also in the month, the totals likely were high.
Continued sports betting growth in Iowa
January’s record was a 42.7% increase over the previous record set in December 2020. Last February, Iowa bettors wagered $56.9 million.
With February’s totals, Iowa became the seventh state to surpass $1 billion in handle since the repeal of PASPA.
Since Iowa sports betting launched in August 2019, operators have generated $79.96 million in revenue. The state has collected $5.45 million in taxes.
