The Illinois Gaming Board reports that July’s sports betting revenue totaled more than $37.6 million. While that figure is considerably lower than June’s $476.5 million, it follows the national trend of a July revenue dip. The state’s sportsbooks also had an impressive 10.19% win rate, topping June’s win rate of 9.97%.
While Illinois’ July revenue was down by 20.8% compared to June, the state still collected more than $5.6 million in taxes. That gives Illinois a total of $43.9 million in sports betting tax revenue for 2021. Cook County, which collects an additional 2% tax on top of what the state collects, took in $417,039 in July. That gives Cook County a total of more than $3.4 million for 2021.
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Sports Betting Nationally Reflects Illinois Trends
Illinois finished third in revenue for July, right behind New Jersey and Nevada. For the year, Illinois has raked in more than $3.6 billion in wagers for $292.6 million in revenue. Nationally, July’s sports betting handle came in at $2.8 billion, a 23.9% drop compared to June’s $3.68 billion.
July’s national gross sports betting revenue fell 19.8% to $268.2 million, with a national win rate of 9.58%. Nationwide, states collected more than $37 million in sports betting taxes in July.
Illinois Loves Parlay Bets
Sports bettors in Illinois continue to favor parlay bets, making it a key source of revenue for sportsbooks. Overall, sportsbook operators collected nearly $17 million in revenue from $79.6 million in parlay bets. The win rate on parlays was also good for operators, with a 21.25% win rate.
For the second straight month, the win rate for Illinois operators topped 20%. So far this year, sportsbooks have raked in more than $136 million on parlay bets.
FanDuel’s “Single Game Parlay” has set the trend that other operators are now copying, preparing for the upcoming NFL season. In July alone, FanDuel collected nearly $10 million in parlay revenue with a win rate of 29.17% on $34.3 million in bets.
How Illinois Operators Compare in Revenue
FanDuel’s parlay revenue alone would have been enough to top all other sportsbooks in Illinois. But, FanDuel’s total revenue from all forms of wagers came to more than $15.6 million with a win rate of 13.21%.
DraftKings took the lead with the highest mobile handle, with $120.3 million, and $9.1 million in revenue. DraftKings also did well with Parlay bets, with revenue of $4.3 million claimed from $31.5 million wagered.
BetRivers saw a 6.2% increase in revenue of $6.4 million from June to July. That is despite a 16.9% drop in the handle to a little more than $59 million. July’s win rate of 10.85% bested June by 2.35% and was BetRivers’ second-highest behind last October’s 11.31%.
Illinois’ newest operator, PointsBet claimed a handle of a little more than $27 million and revenue of $2.7 million.
Barstool Sportsbook reported $22.8 million in handle and $2.1 million in revenue. Coming in dead last is Caesars, with just a $4 million handle.
When it comes to handle, parlay bets were only second to baseball, with $123.7 million in handle. Basketball handled $44.8 million, tennis handled $44 million, and soccer handled $34.3 million.
Illinois baseball fans generated around $7.9 million in revenue for sportsbook operators. Other major sports also made sportsbook operators plenty of money; basketball handled $4.9 million, $3.5 million for tennis, soccer handled $1.9 million, while mixed martial arts and boxing and mixed martial arts handled $1.7 million.
Rivers Casino Dominates Retail Handle
Rivers Casino continues to dominate retail handle, accounting for more than half of the state’s $18.1 million retail handle. The Des Plaines Rivers Casino handled $9.4 million in sports wagers. However, that does not reflect a hefty revenue; with a win rate of just 2.07%, the retail sportsbook at Rivers brought in only $194,913 in revenue. That ranks Rivers fourth among Illinois’ nine retail sportsbooks.
For July the DraftKings sportsbook at Casino Queen in East St. Louis took the top spot in revenue with $488,256 and a win rate of 19.87%. The Argosy in Alton also did well, with $308,348 in revenue and a win rate of 18.28%.
Hawthorne Race Course, including its two off-track locations in Crestwood and Rolling Meadows, generated $196,957 in revenue from more than $1.5 million in wagers.
Hollywood Casino in Aurora finished the lineup with $192,711 in revenue, and a win rate of 22.7% the best in Illinois. Hollywood Casino took in around $850,000 in handle.
Overall, things are looking good for the state’s sports betting industry. With NFL season on the horizon, things can only get better.
