Monthly Sports Betting Handle Sets Records in Indiana and Iowa

Dave Schwab Sports Betting Expert

3 minute read

It has always been said that records were made to be broken. Since the start of the new football season, this appears to be a monthly occurrence in the legal US sports betting industry.

After setting new state records for monthly sports betting volume in September, both Indiana and Iowa broke those records in October.

Over the past two months, Indiana has clearly established itself as a major player in the legal US sports betting market. After posting $355.4 million in betting volume this past September, a new state record was set with the release of October’s betting handle.

Up 29.7% from the previous month, Indiana’s betting handle in October reached $461.1 million. This number is significant for a few different reasons.

Last month raised the state’s total betting handle over the $5 billion mark since its initial launch. The overall revenue from that betting handle has surpassed the $400 million plateau. This puts Indiana in some rare company as one of just six states to accomplish this feat.

Other significant numbers include the daily betting handle in October. The daily handle was close to $15 million per day. This was up from $11.8 million in September. The daily betting handle in October of 2020 was just $7.4 million.

Interestingly enough, the total revenue from October’s handle ($27.8 million) was actually down 16.4%. This is compared to the $33.3 million the state’s sportsbooks operators made in September. This equates to an overall hold of 6.1%. The operator’s hold in September was 9.5%.

Iowa also altered the record books for monthly sports betting volume in October. After setting the previous record of $210.4 million in September, that number was shattered. The Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission reported that October’s sports betting handle was $280.9 million.

Before the start of this year’s football season, the previous state record for betting volume was $161.4 million. That was set in March of this year around college basketball.

While these numbers are impressive in their own right, sports betting revenue in Iowa did not follow suit.

Total sports betting revenue increased from $5.7 million in September to $6.6 million in October. However, the hold percentage for in-state sportsbooks slipped from 2.7% to 2.3% last month. This was the second-lowest hold since Iowa launched legal sports betting in August of 2019.

Caesars Sportsbook continues to lead the way in Iowa with $97 million in betting volume last month. DraftKings was the second-biggest operator in the state with $76.4 million in monthly betting volume.

FanDuel was a distant third at $38.1 million last month. However, this remains the most profitable operator in the state with $2.1 million in legal sports betting revenue.

Overall, there are 15 different US sportsbooks offering their mobile betting app in the state. Close to 90% of Iowa’s October sports betting handle was booked online.

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