For the first time this year, monthly sports betting handle dipped below $1 billion in Illinois.
But June’s volume was still more than 27% higher than the previous June.
June sports betting handle totaled just under $848 million, with the bulk of wagers coming from online betting on pro sports, according to the state gaming board’s monthly report on Illinois sports betting.
FanDuel and DraftKings continue to dominate Illinois market
FanDuel Sportsbook Illinois and DraftKings Illinois dominate the sports betting market in the Land of Lincoln. June was the last month the sportsbooks paid a 15% revenue tax, as the state switched to a graduated system starting July 1. The two most popular sportsbooks in Illinois will face a 40% tax once they clear $200 million in adjusted gross revenue, the highest percentage in the tiered system.
Casino Queen, Inc., the license-holder in Illinois for DraftKings, reported a total of nearly $378 million wagered in June, a 38.5% market share. Fairmount Park, Inc., which operates FanDuel in the state, contributed about $338.4 million, or 34.5% of the market. Together, those two sports betting giants combined for nearly three out of every four dollars wagered in June.
Keeping with a developing trend, Tier 2 betting handle surpassed Tier 1 handle for the second straight month. In fact, Tier 2 betting has had the edge over Tier 1 in five of six months for 2024, with only April’s totals running counter to that pattern.
Per the law that kicked Illinois sports betting into motion in March 2020, Tier 1 bets are those “determined solely by the final score or final outcome of the sports event,” such as a money line bet or an under/over bet on a final score. Prop bets – those not determined by the final score, such as a bet on an individual player’s performance – are designated as Tier 2.
Illinois 4th most-popular state for sports betting
In the absence of college football and basketball, the two primary drivers of college sports betting, Illinois reported only a little more than $7.13 million on college sports betting handle for June. Nearly $5 million of that was Tier 1 handle, and close to $2.2 million were Tier 2 bets.
With close to $6.6 billion generated in handle for the calendar year to date, Illinois is still averaging more than $1 billion a month. The lifetime handle since sports wagering became legal four years ago now tops $37 billion, with revenue surpassing $3 billion in May.
That places Illinois fourth among all sports betting states in all-time handle, behind only New Jersey, New York, and Nevada.
