March Madness in their backyard helped Indiana sportsbooks bounce back from a slow February to post strong numbers in March.
Statewide handle for Indiana sports betting climbed 15% month-on-month to $316.7 million. That still lagged behind January’s football-aided $348.2 million though.
Operators turned that handle into $26.4 million in revenue, according to the state report. That was up 55% on February, and just a fraction behind January’s record of $29.3 million.
Hold was a healthy 8.3%, while the state earned $2.5 million in taxes.
Basketball bump for Hoosiers
Of course, the NCAA March Madness men’s basketball tournament took place in Indiana in March and that was reflected in basketball handle.
That was up 26% to $160.7 million, well over half of all handle. The actual number likely was higher than that, with parlays accounting for another $77.5 million in handle.
It is worth noting that some Illinois bettors — who cannot bet on in-state colleges at home — might have made a trek across the state border to bet on the University of Illinois men’s basketball team.
In fact, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker gave Indiana another competitive edge last month when he ended remote registration for IL sportsbooks.
DraftKings leads Indiana sportsbooks
More than 88% of March bets were placed online, the same mark as February.
The Ameristar East Chicago license, which houses DraftKings, led the market with 40% online share of handle. It also generated 34% of IN sportsbook revenues for the month.
FanDuel was the second largest operator with 33% of online handle and 26% of total revenue. BetMGM rounded out the top three with a 15% online handle share.
PointsBet was fourth with a 5% share, followed by BetRivers and William Hill with around 3% each.
That market structure could be in for a shakeup soon enough though. Barstool Sportsbook will first go live in Indiana by the end of April. The Kambi-powered brand has been taking low-teens market share in other states.
