Nevada’s sports betting operators enjoyed a 38.9% profit increase from the previous year in August.
The Nevada Gaming Control Board reported monthly revenue of $25 million on an August handle of $455.5 million, up 5.8% year-over-year.
Nevada sportsbooks’ 5.5% hold was also up from the 4.2% produced in August 2023.
Online sports betting’s $313.3 million handle, down 1% year-over-year, accounted for 68.8% of all wagering in the Silver State. Mobile sportsbooks also generated $14.8 million of the total revenue.
Retail operators posted a higher hold, winning 7.1% of a $142.8 million handle.
The combined handle put Nevada over $4.5 billion year-to-date and jumped 21.3% month-over-month as operators bounced back from the first handle of less than $400 million for the first time since 2020 in July.
The August hold wasn’t as strong as July’s, so revenue slipped 3% month-over-month.
The Silver State still filled its coffers with $1.7 million of tax revenue.
Pigskin profits
There’s no question Nevada benefited from an early start to the college football season. It typically begins in September, with only a few games falling in August. Instead, Week Zero and nearly all of Week 1 took place in August, increasing the sport’s handle by 62.3% year-over-year.
That helped sportsbooks haul in $8.7 million, 73.3% more revenue than the previous August. With NFL preseason also increasing month-over-month action, football went from $1.7 million wagered in July to $84.6 million bet in August.
Nevada sports betting operators’ impressive 10.3% hold on the sport was even higher than August 2023 when they cleared 9.8% on a $52.1 million handle.
Diamond action decreases
Baseball led all sports with an August handle of $234.9 million, down from $272 million a year ago, but it cleared $1 billion year-to-date in wagers. The bat and ball sport’s revenue fell 48.6% month-over-month to $9.8 million in August.
The “other” sports, which combines tennis, soccer, golf, auto racing, MMA, and boxing, produced $7.6 million in revenue on a $112.3-million handle.
Basketball, relying mainly on a shorter WNBA slate in August as the Olympics wrapped up, fell into the red. Operators lost nearly $630,000 on a $23.3-million handle for the month.
