Figures released last week by the Nevada Gaming Control Board (NGCB) showed that legal sports betting action in November were great for 2022... but well below the figures posted in 2021.
The state's retail and online sports betting sites generated $927.9 million in wagers for the month — the second-highest for Nevada sports betting all year — but it was a 14.5% year-over-year decline from this same month last year.
Silver State operators saw revenue drop by a whopping 47.7% YoY to $37.7 million — a $34.3 million decline from November 2021 — on a hold rate of only 4.1% this month vs. 6.6% in the same period last year.
The win rate was also lower than the previous month, when Nevada posted a 6.2% hold and $56.9 million in revenue in October 2022, representing a 33.7% monthly drop in revenue.
Online sports betting totaled $641.7 million in November handle, down 17.4% from last year, and accounted for a 69.2% share of total wagering action.
Operators' figures avoided full extent of Mattress Mack's massive win
Despite the disappointing performance of Nevada's sportsbooks, things could have been much worse.
State operators averted a major catastrophe as BetMGM was the only book to suffer a major loss at the hands of Houston furniture magnate Jim "Mattress Mack" McIngvale.
BetMGM Nevada paid out "only" $10 million to Mattress Mack when his massive wager on the Houston Astros to win the World Series came through at the beginning of the month.
Overall, McIngvale won a total of $75 million, including a $30-million payout from Caesars in Louisiana that was the largest single sports betting payout in history.
Football leads the way, parlays plummet
Professional and college football again led the way in November, accounting for $516.7 million in wagers.
That was down 14.9% from the previous month, while the $22.9 million in revenue was down 56.8% MoM, but the real decline came from parlay bets, which generated just $7.2 million in wagers (down from $10.1 million in October) while seeing parlay revenues plummeting by 76.5% MoM after clocking in at just over $1 million — thanks in part to the parlay win rate going from 38.5% to just 14.4%.
