Regulated US sportsbooks have posted their maiden $5bn month, however, analysts warn that the figure won’t last long and “will almost certainly fall in October”.
Legal sports betting jurisdictions have posted $5.2bn in wagers in September, a month that saw a surge in betting across the country due to a full schedule of college football and the first three weekends of the NFL season. Those legal entities gained $412.5m in gross revenue.
The total, which surpassed the prior record of $4.6bn that was wagered in March, is set to rise further still with Arizona set yet to report any data for the month.
By comparison, betting during the month is up 80.6 per cent so far from the $2.9bn in legal wagers attracted in September 2020.
The country’s first $5bn month became official following Illinois’ announcement that its sportsbooks had attracted $596.5m during the 30 days.
“Football has created a wave of bettor enthusiasm that has met the higher end of our expectations, but the increase is more than just interest in a single sport or an expansion of legalised sports betting into new states,” said Dustin Gouker, lead analyst for PlayUSA.
“Relatively young markets such as Michigan and Virginia, where bettors got their first opportunity to wager on regular season football through online sportsbooks, expectedly saw a massive surge in interest. But New Jersey and Nevada posted record months, too, signalling a similar broadening in the most mature markets in the US.”
It was anticipated that the NFL would bring records in many of the 28 states and Washington DC that allowed legal sports betting in some form in September, including Arizona, Connecticut, Louisiana, South Dakota, and Wyoming, which all launched that month.
Excluding those new markets, nine jurisdictions set monthly handle records and six posted new highs in gross revenue, including New Jersey becoming the first to topple the $1bn boundary.
However, with five weekends of NFL action, in addition to the beginning of the NBA and NHL and baseball’s postseason, October could soar further still.
“The US sports betting market has not yet come close to reaching its ceiling,” commented Eric Ramsey, data analyst for the PlayUSA.
“Florida recently launched sports betting, and other large states such as Ohio and California continue to grapple with legalisation. Every established sports betting state in the US is still growing. So, records will continue to be in jeopardy for the foreseeable future.”
