How Illinois Became The No. 2 Sports Betting Market In America

Illinois was the No. 1 state despite not having an online sports betting enrollment for the majority of April. By control, the US industry has two markets.

The sports betting market in Illinois outperformed those in Nevada and Pennsylvania. Despite being one of the last states to report monthly figures, Illinois registered a handle of $537.2 million. In contrast, both Nevada and Pennsylvania were unable to surpass the $500 million mark.

Only New Jersey finished higher, with $748 million in bets.

Effective April 4, Illinois Governor JB Pritzker ended online registration. Despite this, Illinois residents remained highly active in the betting market, comparatively speaking.

In April, nationwide sports betting handles consistently dropped due to the absence of any sports or March Madness gambling.

Let’s explore how Illinois ascended to the No. 2 position so quickly.

lengthy period of virtual sign-ups as a result of COVID-19

Online casino registration in Illinois was ongoing from mid-August 2020 until early April 2021. It’s clear that locals utilized this opportunity over those seven plus months.

During, or just before that time, six online casinos were established in Illinois.

• BetRivers
• DraftKings
• FanDuel
• PointsBet
• William Hill
• Barstool

According to the Sports Wagering Act, the rapid success of Illinois was never anticipated. The Act projected in-person registration to remain until 2022.

However, the pandemic compelled Pritzker to persistently renew his monthly executive order, thereby suspending the requirement for in-person registration.

When net sign-ups are in place, the sports betting market in Illinois is among the strongest in the nation.

Illinois is the sixth most populous state in the US, closely following Pennsylvania which ranks fifth. However, online sports betting is not yet legalized in the top four states. It’s worth noting that bettors from New York often cross over to New Jersey to place their bets online.

Illinois also has a status of being sports-crazed. Chicago, one of the largest cities in the nation, is particularly renowned for its passion for sports.

Chicago boasts a plethora of popular sports teams to wager on, contributing to the market’s surge in April. Unlike its neighboring state, Indiana, which lacks a professional baseball team, Illinois is home to two: the Cubs and White Sox.

In April, Illinois residents wagered a substantial $121 million on baseball, making it the second most popular individual sport to bet on after basketball. It was nearly $100 million ahead of soccer, which came in third place.

Certain regions heavily depend on basketball or March Madness. However, considering Chicago’s popularity as a baseball city, it’s plausible that Illinois is better equipped to manage the non-peak sports betting months.

However, Illinois today has a cap.

While it’s excellent news for the Illinois sports betting market, in-person registration doesn’t offer much potential for growth in the near future.

Clearly, Illinois casinos saw a substantial influx of customers during the fall, winter, and early spring. This enabled these customers to carry on betting through their devices. Yet, without enrolling new customers, there aren’t many more advantages to be gained.

This is particularly disappointing for the forthcoming football season. This is the period when sportsbooks gain a substantial portion of their user base, and without an improbable legislative solution, Illinois novels will not be accessible for the 2021 season.

We might witness a revival of online registration as 2022 approaches. This is also the year when mobile-only licenses will become available, leading to remote registrations for everyone.

However, it isn’t outlandish to consider that Illinois, where online registration is standard, could have contested New Jersey for the top ranking. It could have even taken the No. 1 spot by the end of the 2021 sports season.

Tidbits from the profit report for April

Illinois casinos made a killing on bets, which has been the trend for most of the past few months.

Here are the sports handle numbers for April:

$ 173.6 million in basketball
• Baseball:$ 121,000,000
• Wagers:$ 116.4 million
• Sports:$ 31. 2 million
• Golf:$ 30.9 billion
• Sports:$ 19.4 billion

The remainder of the handle is composed of combined smaller sporting elements.

Finally, by handle, parlays were established, but rapidly became first by operator revenue. In April, users placed bets amounting to $19 million, which is $10 million more than any other type of bet mentioned earlier.

Finally, Rivers Casino managed to reclaim roughly 50% of the wholesale market share due to the reintroduction of in-person registration. However, Rivers Casino’s market share experienced a slight decrease, falling by about one percentage point from March to 15.7% in April.

BetRivers remains a solid third in the Illinois market. However, it doesn’t appear that their odds of overtaking FanDuel or DraftKings will be significantly boosted by in-person registration.