Indiana Sports Betting Revenue Increases to $25.4M in June
Contents
Indiana has stayed afloat as one of the bigger betting markets in the United States, despite several neighbors legalizing sports betting. In the surrounding area, Illinois, West Virginia, Michigan, and Tennessee all have legal sports betting. However, the state continues to put up massive betting numbers, even in months where not a ton of sporting events are being played.
While the sports betting handle dropped off slightly from $254.4 million in May to $246.3 million in June, the revenue for sportsbooks in the state increased massively to $25.4 million from only $18.8 million. This translated to a huge increase in state revenue tax as Indiana cashed in on $2.4 million in taxes from sports betting in June. This is a big sum that will help support the financial recovery from the pandemic in the state.
The only other large state to report sports betting numbers for June up until this point (June 13th, 2021) is Iowa, and Indiana crushed those numbers in comparison. Iowa recorded $111.1 million in handle and $8.4 million in revenue. However, even as the reports start to roll in, I fully expect Indiana to stay near the top, as the state continues to perform well against the other large sports betting markets.
Sports Breakdown
Indiana is one of the few states that is polite enough to supply a breakdown of how the money is being wagered. This helps give an idea of how the monthly handle came to be. For June, basketball clearly led the way with $77 million wagered. You do not have to look too much into this as the NBA is often the second largest betting market in the United States, and June was a prime month for the NBA Playoffs. It is no shock to see big numbers when it comes to basketball.
Parlays also made up $58.8 million in wagers, many of which likely included NBA wagers, which just goes to show how vital the playoffs were to Indiana’s sports betting numbers for the month.
Coming in second was baseball with $60.4 million of the handle, a rather large chunk of money as we see baseball start to establish itself as a major betting event. Football accounted for $1.5 million in wagers as bettors wager on future bets as they look ahead to the very much anticipated 2021 NFL season.
The “other” category made up $52 million in wagers. This was most likely headlined by tennis, golf, and playoff hockey; however, we can only speculate as no further information was given regarding the “other” category.
Future Outlook
Indiana will be facing one of the most competitive geographic locations for sports betting in the coming year. Ohio is poised to legalize sports betting, and Kentucky has had advanced legislation the previous two years that would allow sports wagering. If both of these states legalize, it would mean that Indiana would be entirely surrounded by states that also offer legal sports wagering.
In a move to stand out from the crowd, there have been rumblings of legal online casinos coming to Indiana. This movement is still in its infancy but could be key to helping Indiana compete with its neighbors and remain a large betting market in the United States.
