Nevada’s Legal Sports Betting Industry Trends Downward in July

Dave Schwab Sports Betting Expert

3 minute read

Following a national trend, the legal sports betting handle in Nevada took a major dip in July. As the second-biggest legal market in the US in terms of monthly betting handle, the numbers are rather striking.

The Nevada Gaming Commission reported that July’s total sports betting handle was $409.7 million. This reflects a drop of 24.9% as compared to June’s handle of $545.4 million. The percentage drop falls in line with other big markets such as New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Michigan.

In June, Nevada’s mobile sports betting accounted for 62.4% of the total betting handle to reach $314.3 million. This past July, that number slipped to $242 million which was just 59% of the monthly handle.

Nevada continues to lag behind most of the bigger markets when it comes to legal mobile sports betting. This is one of the few states that still requires legal-aged sports bettors to register in person for an online betting account.

In New Jersey and Pennsylvania where online registration is allowed, mobile betting accounts for more than 90% of the monthly handle on average.

The good news for Nevada in July was sports betting revenue. Every market with a lower handle also reported lower revenue for the month. Sportsbook operators in Nevada enjoyed a 14% increase in their revenue earned on July’s total betting volume.

Sports betting revenue topped out at $33.3 million in July to reflect a healthy 8.12% hold. The hold percentage is a key measure for sportsbook operators. This is the difference between money going out on winning wagers and the money plus commission collected on losing bets.

June’s revenue in Nevada was reported at $29.2 million to reflect a much lower hold on betting volume.

July’s betting volume numbers across the board raised some eyebrows. This is in light of just how hot the legal US market has been. However, this situation has not risen any significant level of concern. Many industry insiders view this as the calm before the storm.

The summer months are traditionally slow for legal sports betting. The lack of major sports in action combined with family vacations cut interest in betting on the games.

August could receive a small boost from the recent Summer Olympics. However, the real uptick will have to wait until September with the return of football.

Nevada in general should be extremely optimistic. Both Las Vegas and Reno are reporting strong gaming numbers in their land-based casinos. Tourism is on the rise after a rough go of things in 2020.

Even though New Jersey is the No. 1 legal market in the US for sports betting volume, Nevada is still where it all began.

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