New Jersey vs Nevada sportsbooks revenue is not your typical apples-to-apples comparison. However, October was a $29.5-million month for sportsbooks across the state of Nevada. But revenue was down a pesky 6% in a year-over-year comparison, per Nevada Gaming Control Board data.
The books retained a very standard 5.6% of the handle in the form of winnings. That’s exactly what it has averaged over the past year. Meaning that roughly $528.5 million was bet in the Silver State last month. That was down 6.4% compared to the $564.7 million wagered in October 2017.
Nevada was the only single-game sports wagering state in October 2017. So, New Jersey vs Nevada sportsbooks revenue comparison has little data to work with. However, last month totaled six states with legal sports wagering. Two additional states – Pennsylvania and Rhode Island – launched this month. Fortunately for Nevada, all the states, with the exception of New Mexico, are far east of Las Vegas.
Here’s a look at the breakdown on the $29.5 million
Football: $11.3 million, down 28.2% y/y
Baseball: $8.2 million, up 30.8% y/y
Basketball: $3.7 million, down 24.8% y/y
Parlays: $2.6 million, down 45.2% y/y
Other: $3.6 million, down 907.1% y/y.
New Jersey comparison
The only state comparable to Nevada right now is the Garden State, which kicked off sports betting this summer. New Jersey’s sports betting market was $11.6 million in revenue and $260.7 million in handle last month. New Jersey suffered from a significantly below-average hold of 4.4%.
The good news is that the handle rose a whopping 41.7% month-over-month. The bad news being the halved revenue when compared to September.
Nevada and New Jersey aren’t an apples-to-apples comparison because the latter’s market can’t be put in a year-over-year context. That, and Nevada doesn’t yet allow for remote mobile sports betting app registration, while New Jersey does. Regardless, one can get a rough picture of the explosive growth of New Jersey’s industry while Nevada clearly has a mature market.
October was lackluster for Nevada, but September was a record-setting month for the books there in terms of both revenue ($56.3 million) and handle ($571 million). It’s too early to say Nevada’s market has plateaued in the face of more and more states launching.
The results of March Madness in 2019 might be a great indicator, as Las Vegas historically has drawn hordes of gambling tourists for the roughly month-long bonanza of college hoops.
