Indiana got away to a flying start in September, its first month in the sports betting business.
Boosted by its retail sportsbooks closest to Illinois and its capital Chicago, Indiana raked in $35.2m in betting handle. Better still it finished the month with a gross -revenue of $8.6m.
Does that mean anything? For a state with not much more than 6.6 million people and where sports-betting is in its infancy, it certainly does.
New Jersey, the shining light in the sportsbook revolution sweeping America, totaled $44.4m in retail handle in the same month. And let’s not forget that betting there has been on the go for more than a year.
Let’s also remember New Jersey has 9.2 million residents and that New York is just the width of the Hudson River away. Furthermore, the Garden State has some of the best betting infrastructure in the game.
Let’s look now at Philadelphia, also a neighbor of New Jersey. Its land-based retail sportsbooks have been taking wagers for just under a year. Yet its retail handle total ($25.8m) in September was $9.4m less than Indiana’s – and it has more than 12m people.
Of course handle taken by retail sportsbooks is just the tip of the iceberg.
NJ has had online sports betting since inception, and figures show that 80% of all their wagers were made online. This was mostly on smartphones and the trend was clearly evident again in September.
New Jersey’s online handle in September totaled $394m
New Jersey’s total betting handle for this month was $293.6 million, with as much as $249m coming from online betting.
The Garden State’s proximity to New York’s 8.6 million residents may have contributed as much as 20% to that total. The Wire act prohibits cross-border betting. New Yorkers, however, don’t think twice about crossing the Hudson to make legal smart phone bets in places like Hoboken.
Indiana did not have online betting in September, but it too may have benefitted from the patronage of a neighboring state.
Listen to what Dustin Gouker, a lead analyst for PlayIndiana.com, was quoted as saying by Intergameonline.com: “Indiana’s sportsbooks are in their infancy. However, their ability to capitalize on the Chicago market didn’t take long to produce dividends.
“This is the largest handle we’ve seen in a (US) state’s first month of legal sports betting. And it happened without the benefit of online sports betting, which didn’t launch here until October. That is a testament to Indiana’s existing infrastructure.”
More than half of Indian’s September betting intake came via football and local analysts are excited by the possibilities presented by online betting.
Kim Yuhl, one of the analysts, said: “Indiana showed in its first month a familiar pattern. Football betting is far and away the main driver in the industry. The ability to make online and mobile bets, though, should send the state’s handle into a new stratosphere.”
