The Iowa Hawkeyes didn’t make a deep March Madness run, but the state set sports betting records in March.
Iowa sportsbooks took a record $161.4 million in wagers, up from $144 million in February, according to a report from the Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission released Thursday.
The previous record was January’s $149.5 million handle.
Operators generated a record $13.45 million in revenue, good for a 8.3% hold. The state collected $908,009 in taxes for the month.
Iowa sports betting online handle steady
The state’s in-person registration requirement expired in January. In February, the online handle reached 87.2% of bets.
The expiration of the in-person registration requirement unsurprisingly opened the floodgates for sports betting in Iowa, with January’s handle a 42.7% increase over the then-previous record in December 2020.
In March, $139.4 million was bet online, or 86.3% of the month’s overall handle. Retail handle was $22 million.
William Hill keeps IA sports betting crown
William Hill totaled $43.7 million in online bets, or 31% of the online total. That total came through the company’s six casino partners.
DraftKings and BetRivers drew a combined $43.7 million with their partnerships with three Wild Rose casinos.
The combined Diamond Jo casino skin partners, FanDuel and BetMGM, made up $37.6 million of the online handle. Diamond Jo – Dubuque was the state’s March leader, taking in nearly $29 million in bets including $28.1 million online, and generating $1.9 million in revenue.
Other operator handles:
- PointsBet: $5.7 million
- Elite: $4.6 million
- theScore: $1.8 million (casino partner Ameristar led retail handle with $5.6 million)
- Elite/Betfred: $972,398
- Hard Rock: $788,207
- Q Sportsbook: $350,279
Top 5 in revenue:
- Diamond Jo – Dubuque: $1.9 million
- Diamond Jo – Worth: $1.7 million
- Wild Rose – Jefferson: $1.6 million
- Prairie Meadows (William Hill): $1.3 million
- Wild Rose – Clinton: $1.0 million
No March Madness data
The Iowa report did not include specific NCAA Tournament betting figures.
The Hawkeyes entered the tournament as a No. 2 seed but failed to make it beyond the second round.
Had Iowa made a deeper run, the state’s handle might have received an extra boost.
