The incredible growth of the Illinois sports betting industry continues unabated.
Illinois is now the second-biggest sports betting market in the United States, surpassing New Jersey. That’s based on figures for August released today by the Illinois Gaming Board.
In August, the Prairie State racked up handle of nearly $565 million, $8 million more than New Jersey. New York leads the nation with revenue of more than $877 million through August.
Comparing year-over-year, August’s figures were up 41% in Illinois.
Most importantly for the citizens of Illinois, legal, regulated Illinois sportsbooks have produced nearly $175 million in tax revenue for state and local authorities since the industry launched in March 2020. In 2022 alone, through August, tax revenue has reached nearly $70 million.
Year-to-date, Illinois sportsbooks rank third in both gross gaming revenue (nearly $453 million) behind New Jersey ($517 million) and New York (over $926 million). Note, New Jersey and New York have already reported figures for September.
In year-to-date total handle figures, Illinois ranks third in the nation with over $5.8 billion bet on sports, behind New Jersey ($7.7 billion) and New York ($11.5 billion).
Illinois online sportsbooks have now exceeded $1 billion
The Prairie State also surpassed a major sports betting milestone in August.
Illinois sportsbooks have now exceeded $1 billion in gross gaming revenue from online activity only since sports betting was launched 29 months ago. Just one month prior, July’s figures showed gross betting revenue from IL sportsbooks — counting physical and online sports betting together — surpassed $1 billion lifetime.
The growth is mostly attributable to a change in legislation.
In March of this year, legislation came into effect allowing Illinois residents to sign-up online for sportsbooks, rather than doing so at one of the state’s land-based casinos. The decision to allow residents to register online with one of the state’s seven legal sportsbooks has been a boon to the industry.
Illinois sports betting revenue – August 2022
| Licensee | Online Brand | Handle | Revenue | Hold | Taxes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fairmount Park | FanDuel | $180,286,759 | $21,829,562 | 12.1% | $3,024,060 |
| Casino Queen East St. Louis | DraftKings | $172,220,817 | $22,457,431 | 13% | $1,944,035 |
| Rivers Des Plaines | BetRivers | $74,214,992 | $6,990,176 | 9.4% | $966,590 |
| Hawthorne | PointsBet | $39,797,880 | $4,715,669 | 11.8% | $659,019 |
| Par-A-Dice | BetMGM | $34,549,556 | $2,867,851 | 8.3% | $395,790 |
| Hollywood Aurora | Barstool | $30,368,583 | $1,953,561 | 6.4% | $315,064 |
| Grand Victoria | Caesars | $29,639,967 | $3,015,069 | 10.2% | $296,276 |
| Argosy | Unibet | $3,093,388 | $661,406 | 21.4% | $81,643 |
| Hollywood Joliet | $665,467 | $137,874 | 20.7% | $12,371 | |
| Total | $564,837,409 | $64,628,599 | 11.4% | $7,694,847 |
94% of IL sports bets have been made online
Lifetime, IL sportsbooks have produced total revenue of $1,124,218,121. For online only, the revenue is $1,057,603,575. That means 94% of all sports bets in Illinois have been made online. Bets made in physical books total a little over $66 million.
With more sportsbooks coming to Illinois, the future is bright for the industry. The Prairie State is on the cusp of surpassing Pennsylvania and jumping into third place in terms of lifetime sports betting revenue.
Lifetime sports betting revenue ranking:
- New Jersey — $2,123,552,899
- Nevada — $1,459,590,000
- Pennsylvania — $1,284,279,656
- Illinois — $1,124,218,121
- New York — $968,158,801
Lifetime sports betting handle:
- New Jersey — $30,497,224
- Nevada — $25,969,625,229
- Pennsylvania — $16,550,851,863
- Illinois — $14,736,064,573
- New York — $11,891,105,476
Sports betting exceeds $60 billion in handle nationwide in 2022
This year, the 26 states that have legal sports betting have produced combined handle exceeding $60 billion this year to date (Note: some states have reported September figures already and one state has yet to report August figures). Total US sports betting revenue is more than $4.5 billion in 2022.
Since the dawn of legal sports betting, over $157 billion has been bet in the United States. All-time sports betting revenue is on the cusp of hitting $12 billion.
