NFL and college football put Nevada firmly back on top of the US sports betting market in September.
For three of the past four months, New Jersey had lead America’s traditional betting capital, both in handle and in revenue.
But that all changed with the arrival of the football season. For years, the grid-iron game has been the biggest draw-card for Nevada. This was again the case in September.
According to figures released by the Nevada Gaming Commission, its sportsbooks brought in total handle in September of $546.3 million.
That was $24.7m down on its betting intake for the same month in 2018, but all of $100m more than New Jersey’s September total of $445.
On its own, Nevada, with a quarter of the population of New Jersey, would not be able to achieve the kind of handle it does. That it manages to do so can be put down mainly to an annual invasion of Las Vegas by football punters from neighboring giants like California and Texas.
Nevada football punters took a beating in September.
No matter whence they came, punters were not particularly successful in Nevada this September. In fact, they took a beating. The sports bookmakers of Nevada kept as much as 89.65% of the handle they collected.
That gave them total revenue for September of $52.1m, which exceeded the New Jersey’s equivalent by $14.2m.
If football betting in Nevada holds fast through to the end of the year, it should net around $550m per month. And this would give it total handle for 2019 of over $5 billion for the second straight year.
New Jersey, in the meantime, had brought in just under $3 billion in handle by the end of September. With only four months to its year-end, $5 billion might just be a bridge too far.
Las Vegas should still be the Sports betting capital of America – and could be for some time.
The western states of the US, notably California, with its population of $39.56 million and Texas with 28.7m, are still a long way from legalizing sports betting.
Punters from those states not betting illegally will continue to use Nevada whenever possible.
