The many online and land-based sportsbooks in the American state of Indiana reportedly had an almost record December after chalking up slightly over $463 million in aggregated handle alongside in the region of $25 million in combined gross revenues.
According to a Wednesday report from the online news domain at PlayIndiana.com citing official information from the Indiana Gaming Commission, the December performance means that ‘The Hoosier State’ has now purportedly become the fifth American jurisdiction after Nevada, New Jersey, Illinois and Pennsylvania to have passed the $6 billion sportsbetting handle benchmark since the 2018 revocation of the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA).
Considerable consolidation:
Indiana is home to almost 6.8 million people and legalized retail sportsbetting in September of 2019 before subsequently allowing residents to place a wide range of online wagers. The handle figure for December reportedly represented a rise of 47.9% year-on-year but fell just short of the all-time high of $463.7 million set the previous month as the daily betting volume slowed to $14.9 million from the $15.5 million seen for November.
Expert examination:
Jake Garza serves as an analyst for PlayIndiana.com and he detailed that Indiana’s aggregated sportsbetting revenues for December took the annual figure to beyond $306 million off of a hold that sat at around 8%. He furthermore explained that all of this saw the industry’s yearly tax contribution grow by 120.6% to top $29 million, which had encompassed in the region of $2.4 million for last month alone.
Read a statement from Garza…
“This autumn has been so impressive for sportsbooks that it almost seems like anything other than a record month is a surprise. In context, sportsbooks remained near all-time highs for wagering and revenues, continuing a remarkable four-month stretch in which wagering was up 73.8% year-on-year.”
Distinct dominance:
PlayIndiana.com reported that December capped off what had been an ‘explosive year’ for the sportsbetting industry in Indiana as aggregated annual online and retail handle rose by 116.4% year-on-year to surpass $3.8 billion, which will likely place the Midwestern state in seventh spot in terms of the United States’ volume hierarchy. The source also noted that the jurisdiction’s twelve-month gross sports wagering revenues had swelled by 125.5% to hit $307.6 million while online traffic had increased by 132% to approximately $3.4 billion.
Online optimism:
For his part and Eric Ramsey from PlayIndiana.com reportedly asserted that online sports wagers had accounted for 91.3% of Indiana’s total December handle with the remaining $40.2 million having been generated by retail sportsbooks. He detailed that the mobile-friendly service from DraftKings Incorporated had once again topped the month’s charts after processing some $148.2 million in remote bets although competitor FanDuel Group finished a close second courtesy of a $120.5 million tally.
A statement from Ramsey read…
“Last year should be remembered as the year in which people fully embraced online sportsbetting, especially after a tumultuous 2020. As impressive as the year was, though, the market is not done growing and sportsbooks are still reaching new customers and operators are offering increasingly innovative products. Meanwhile, Hoosiers are becoming more comfortable with sportsbetting in general and more open to less conventional forms of wagering such as in-game betting.”