Pent-up demand for both March Madness and a good time in a Las Vegas sportsbook led to a pretty busy month for Nevada sports betting.
Nevada sportsbooks took $641 million in bets last month, good for the state’s third-best month ever. Sports betting revenue was $39.3 million, good for 6.1% hold.
The Nevada sports betting report pushed post-PASPA US sports betting handle beyond the $50 billion mark (officially $50.004 billion.) That total does not include data from Montana, New York, or various tribal betting operations.
Sportsbook revenue post-PASPA is $3.6 billion for a 7.2% hold. Total reported taxes paid is $495.2 million.
March Madness dominates Nevada sports betting
Nearly $4 out of every $5 bet last month came on basketball. Total basketball handle was $501.5 million, which includes betting on both college and professional basketball.
While exact figures for March Madness are not available, Nevada Gaming Control Board senior research analyst Michael Lawton said he has been told anecdotally the NCAA Tournament typically accounts for 70% of all basketball bets in March.
That would suggest $351 million bet on the tournament at NV sportsbooks last month. That total would not include the Final Four or title game, which were played in April.
Total basketball handle is up 1.3% from March 2019, when the state reported $495 million in basketball bets. There was no tournament held in March 2020 because of the coronavirus pandemic.
‘Other’ category second-highest
Given the slower sports schedule in March, it is not surprising to see the ‘other’ category in second place with $69.1 million in handle.
The category includes sports betting outside of football, basketball, baseball, hockey and parlay betting. It was also second last March when Nevada reported just $141.1 million in handle.
The pandemic saw sports begin to shut down March 11, leaving few conventional betting opportunities for bettors.
Hockey followed with $58 million in bets. Baseball saw $9.2 million in bets last month.
Mobile still lagging other markets
Mobile sports betting in Nevada remains miles away from where other leading US sports betting states are.
Mobile handle was $385.1 million in March, or 60% of the total handle. That means $255.9 million was bet at a retail sportsbook, which is impressive because sportsbooks were limited to 50% capacity during March.
For comparison, sports betting in Pennsylvania saw nearly 92% of handle from online last month. New Jersey sportsbooks had nearly 91% of handle bet online.
