Nevada sportsbooks enjoyed their best-ever July thanks to baseball and Conor McGregor.
Handle was $409.7 million for the month, down 25% compared to June.
However, revenues climbed 14% to $33.3 million thanks to a healthy hold rate of 8.12%.
Both the revenue and handle are all-time records for July, per Nevada Gaming Control.
Nevada sportsbooks did better than other states
The revenue figure meant Nevada sportsbooks did better than most of their counterparts around the country.
Across the 14 US sports betting jurisdictions that reported July figures so far, revenues fell by around 25%.
Handle was down around 23% in those same states.
What powered Nevada sportsbooks to strong hold?
The UFC looked to be the biggest driver of Nevada’s success.
Conor McGregor fought Dustin Poirier on July 11 and lost after being heavily backed.
As a result, books held 9.6% of $95 million in the ‘other’ bets category.
Nevada’s pastime?
Baseball also buoyed the bumper numbers. Baseball accounted for 55% of all wagers in July, worth $227 million.
And those bets went well for the books with an 8.3% hold, compared to just 1.4% in June.
Basketball was third most-popular category with $77 million in bets.
Football season round the corner
Football attracted around $1 million in handle, but also resulted in a GGR loss of $1 million as players cashed bets from last season.
Nevada can expect those football bets to state picking up pace in August as tourists get their NFL and CFB futures down for the 2021 season.
Mobile wagering still oscillating
Elsewhere, mobile accounted for 59% of all handle. That compared to 58% in June, when tourists started returning to Nevada.
Before that, mobile was 62.4% of handle in May and 65.3% in April.
Of course, the mobile share still trails the 90+% in states like New Jersey thanks to in-person registration requirements.
Finally, Nevada operator paid around $2.25 million in taxes to the state, on a 6.75% rate.
