It’s predicted that after Illinois posts its November sports betting handle, it’s safe to safe that the total US handle for the month will top $3.5 billion. As it is, without Illinois’ report, the numbers have already reached $3.07 billion. This is in part thanks to Nevada’s excellent results of $609.4 million, which helped the US set another national record.
It wasn’t a record-breaking month for Nevada, with handle dipping 7.7% month over month compared to October’s $660 million handle reported. Analysts say that this was very much due to the inconsistencies in the annual sporting calendar. While November is usually full of NHL and NBA games, this year there were practically none. As such, most of Nevada’s handle – over 82% – was bet on football.
Of the $609.4 million bet in Nevada, just over half (56.4%) was made on mobile devices.
New Jersey, Iowa and Indiana all broke their own betting handle records in November.
The biggest driver of all bets was football, with NFL and college football in full swing.
Other betting options came from the Pac-12 and MAC conferences.The final week of November saw the return of college basketball, helping the numbers rise.Players also bet on US and European soccer.
States Impress with High Handles in November 2020
Taking a look at the peformance of other states in November, we see the following results:
- Indiana: Reported a handle of $250 million – up $20 million from October. It’s predicted that the state will make the magic $1 billion milestone this year.
- Iowa: Broke a state record with $87.1 million. The state collected just under $550,000 in taxes. The market is expected to grow even more next year when mobile sports betting accounts can be registered at home.
- Washington DC: Along with Mississippi and Michigan, saw their numbers dipping year-on-year.
- Michigan: Sports books were forced to close down on November 18th because of a strong spike in COVID-19 cases, resulting in a dip in numbers. Next month, Michigan will see the launch of mobile betting and numbers should improve.
- West Virginia: Numbers weren’t as impressive compared to September’s all-time high, but they did climb month-on-month.
- Tennessee: The state exceeded all expectations with handle of $131 million in its first full month of operations. Tax revenue came in at $2.4 million.
- Colorado: November handle was $231 million.
