Indiana Sets New Record for Legal Sports Betting in November

Dave Schwab Sports Betting Expert

3 minute read

Indiana has quickly become one of the biggest states for legal sports betting in the US. The sports betting industry there continues to break records for monthly betting volume as quickly as they are set.

As one of the first states to release gaming numbers for November, Indiana’s total sports betting handle topped out at $463.7 million. This broke the old record set in October by $2.6 million.

The numbers started to spike in September with the start of the new football season. They climbed even higher in October with the NBA and NHL back on the betting board. The primary reason for the new volume record in November was the start of college basketball.

This increase was bolstered by in-state teams such as the Big Ten’s Indiana Hoosiers. October’s betting handle on basketball was $53.5 million. The NBA’s Indiana Pacers have always been a big draw.

However, with college basketball back on the board, the betting handle on that sport shot up to $132.1 million in November.

Football is still king, backed by betting on the NFL’s Indianapolis Colts. The total betting handle on football in Indiana reached $136.3 million this past month. However, this reflects a 22.5% decrease from the $175.8 million bet on football in October.

This decrease was mainly caused by just four weekends of games in November versus five weekends of football games the month before.

The in-state sportsbook operators were smiling all the way to the bank last month. Sportsbook revenue shot up to $47.7 million in November. This figure represents an incredible 72.2% increase from October that added up to a $20 million-dollar gain.

NFL bettors took it on the chin in November with one major upset after another the entire month. The heavy lean towards favorites by the betting public helped to drive revenue growth for every sportsbook operator.

DraftKings is the biggest legal sportsbook operator in Indiana according to monthly betting volume. This book’s mobile betting app first went live in October of 2019. Two years later, DraftKings’ betting handle in November reached $166.2 million through its mobile app.

The Boston-based company posted $12.6 million in revenue on that handle. Betting volume for November increased $14.5 million over the previous month while revenue jumped $4.8 million.

In direct contrast, the state’s second-biggest operator did not fare as well. FanDuel’s betting handle in November came in at $109.8 million. This was a slight decrease from its $113.3 betting handle in Indiana this past October.

However, the No. 1 operator in the entire legal US market still led the way in revenue at $15.6 million last month. This represents a 69% gain in sports betting earnings. FanDuel’s revenue in Indiana this past October was just $9.2 million.

Indiana’s total sports betting revenue of $47.7 million in November generated $4.5 million in taxes for the state.

Written by Dave Schwab, our US Sports Betting Industry Expert. You can learn more about our author's expertise here.

Dave Schwab

Dave Schwab has been covering the sports betting industry for the past 12 years as the main focus of his specialty marketing company for online content. This endeavor followed a previous career in the field of sales and marketing in the wholesaling sector.Most of his weekly pieces focus on the rapidly expanding legal US sports betting industry. However, he still does extensive work covering betting angles that can provide a competitive edge to avid players. Dave believes that it is always a challenge to take past results and current form to try and correctly determine a future result. Sports brings out the unpredictability in what should be a fairly predictable outcome based on the stats, facts and recent trends in a particular matchup. More from Dave Schwab