Illinois experienced a mix of both positive and negative legal sports betting developments at the end of the summer.
According to the Illinois Gaming Board, the Land of Lincoln saw adjusted gross revenue fall 23.2% from July to $46.9 million in August, as online betting sites and retail locations combined to produce a 6.9% hold.
It marked the first time since June 2022 that sports betting in Illinois had a win rate below 7%.
The Land of Lincoln’s handle, however, rose 10.5% to $676.1 million. That wasn’t enough to match the pace set by New Jersey, which for the first time in six months reclaimed the No. 2 spot behind New York for most wagers by a state nationally for the month.
Illinois operators paid out $7.04 million in taxes in August, down from $2 million in July, with Cook County claiming 508,993 from sports betting in the Chicago area.
More milestones reached
A month after surpassing $2 billion in revenue in July, Illinois became the fourth state to reach $25 billion in handle, trailing only New York, New Jersey, and Nevada.
The Land of Lincoln also reached $300 million in tax payouts all time and $600 million in revenue since 2023 began.
It helped that Illinois saw residents wager 19.7% more money in August 2023 than in the same month last year. Adjusted gross revenue was also up slightly at 1.8% year-over-year.
FanDuel finishes first in revenue
Online sports betting made up 96% of the overall August handle in Illinois.
Just like in July, DraftKings led mobile operators with a handle of $241.3 million, but a hold of 6.7% led to $15.8 million of revenue in August. That was second behind FanDuel, which produced $17.3 million of profit on a handle of $222.6 million.
BetRivers claimed the third-highest handle in August at $63.3 million while Caesars, PointsBet, and BetMGM all finished with handles of over $30 million.
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