July didn’t exactly sizzle at Indiana sports betting either, as the handle was down from the previous month and also revealed a slight slump from July 2022. However, the hold, or win rate, was up which bridged the handle gap and saw revenues rise on both counts.
Handle Softens
Indiana no longer has the advantage it once held when neighboring Ohio was still deliberating as to whether or not to pass an online sports betting bill. In January of this year, that matter was settled when the Buckeye State launched mobile sports betting.
This meant that Ohio residents could remain in the comfort of their own homes to place a bet instead of fleeing across state lines to the Hoosier State, giving their business to the Indiana sportsbooks. That will make a noticeable dent in Indiana’s handle and will likely have a deleterious effect on revenue moving forward.
July is never a good month for the sportsbooks as Major League Baseball is the only game in town outside of the sporadic golf, tennis, and MMA events. The action should begin to heat up in August as the NFL preseason will be in full swing but once the pro and college football schedule begins in earnest in September is when the books will be buzzing.
Therefore, the nine percent decline in handle from the previous month was not all that surprising as Indiana sportsbooks accepted $203.8 million in wagers compared to June’s $224.1 million handle. Yet, the public got beat up by the books to the tune of an 11.3 percent hold versus 8.6 percent in June, sending $2.2 million to the state in tax revenue.
By default, baseball is king in July, and below is a breakdown of how the betting was dispersed in July 2023.
- Baseball: $69,425,254
- Parlay: $56,175,460
- Basketball: $12,585,665
- Football: $2,423,478
- Other: $62,852,251
DraftKings Paces the Pack
It has become increasingly common to see DraftKings and not FanDuel, lead the way in handle as the Boston-based bookmaker has made inroads in virtually all domestic sports betting markets. Indiana was no exception as DraftKings won Indiana’s popularity contest last month and has now been No. 1 over FanDuel in four of the first seven months of the year including July.
But in an industry where hold, or win rate, is a critical component to long-term success, FanDuel won the day with a 13.6 percent hold, more than two points above the 11.3 percent average in July, generating $8.5 million in revenue versus nearly $7.4 million for DraftKings.
The top four sports betting operators in July last month in the Hoosier State were as follows:
- DraftKings reported $77.6 million in handle.
- FanDuel reported $62.7 million in handle.
- BetMGM reported $18.9 million in handle.
- Caesars reported $15.7 million in handle.
Every other sportsbook came shy of the $10 million handle mark in July and we have seen that the market is slowly morphing into a four-horse race in Indiana as well as many other markets, with FanDuel and DraftKings continually battling for the top spot.
Calculators
