It’s been an eventful 15 months since Indiana legalized sports betting back in September 2019. Now that we have more than a year of data to review, let’s take a look at how the business has changed within the State.
September 2020 was a record month for Indiana, with $207.5 million wagered on sports throughout the state. This represented a 489% increase from September 2019, when Hoosiers wagered $35.2 on sporting events.
Since the launch, sportsbooks have generated $10.4 million in state tax revenue, with roughly 13.5% of that money coming from September 2020 alone. This number would be even larger if not for the COVID-related shutdown of sports earlier this year, including the NCAA basketball tournament.
DraftKings was the first sportsbook to join the mobile market, and this gave it a tremendous advantage in drawing customers. In September 2020, mobile sports betting accounted for 83.5% of all sports betting in the State, and more than half of that money was wagered through DraftKings.
As of September, there were nine mobile sportsbooks competing for supremacy in Indiana’s sports betting market:
- DraftKings
- FanDuel
- BetRivers
- BetMGM
- PointsBet
- Unibet
- Caesars
- BetAmerica
- theScore
DraftKings and FanDuel were the top dogs by a pretty significant margin, with a 51.6% and a 32.6% market share, respectively. MGM had 7.6%, followed by BetRivers at 3.6% and PointsBet at 3.57%. The bottom four combined to make up the final 1% of the market, but new sportsbooks are already edging in.
For the casual sports better, the upside to fierce industry competition is that there are almost always promotions to take advantage of. Whether we’re talking about $1,000 in free bets on DraftKings or $250 deposit bonuses on BetRivers, there’s little reason for gamblers to be monogamous when there’s this much free money flying around.
Of all the State’s brick and mortar sportsbooks, the Hollywood Casino in Lawrenceburg took in the most sports bets in September with a handle of $9.9 million. This is likely due to the casino’s proximity to Cincinnati, where sports betting is still illegal.
Indiana’s neighbors have started noticing its success with sports betting, and they’re scrambling to catch up. Illinois and Michigan have recently started cutting in on Indiana’s action, and Ohio is considering legislation of its own. For better or for worse, Kentucky’s big to legalize sports betting failed earlier this year.
Overall, the first year of sports wagering in Indiana has been an overwhelming success in terms of both overall tax revenue and growth throughout the year. Indiana currently ranks fourth in the U.S. in terms of revenue generated from sports betting, trailing only the gaming stalwarts in Nevada, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
There are countless options available to gamblers in Indiana and the industry appears to be quite healthy, with surging revenues and new competitors entering the marketplace. As we head into our second year of legalized sports betting, the Marc Lopez Law Firm encourages everyone to play responsibly, have fun, and remember—always plead the 5th!