Online registration helped boost Iowa sports betting revenue to a record $11.3m, up 250.7% year-on-year and 56.0% month-on-month, as the state also easily broke records for handle, tax revenue and online betting figures.
The record revenue came on bets worth $149.5m, also a record, after an 157.8% increase from January 2020 and a 42.7% jump from December 2020’s previous high.
With players able to register for a betting account at home rather than traveling to a land-based casino for the first time, online betting skyrocketed 257.1% year-on-year and 54.7% from December 2020’s record, with $120.8m worth of bets placed online.
These online bets produced $8.4m in revenue, up 513.9% and more than the amount made through online and retail channels combined in any previous month.
Despite players no longer needing to register at a land-based casino, retail revenue also increased year-on-year, by 61.1% to $2.9m, as retail handle was up 14.8% to $27.8m.
Of the $11.3m in revenue, the state of Iowa took in $765,673 in tax, also a record.
William Hill’s sportsbook at Penn National Gaming’s Prairie Meadows Racetrack and Casino continued to hold its position at the top of the Iowa sportsbook market in terms of revenue, bringing in $1.8m in revenue on bets worth $23.2m. Of this handle total, $21.6m was bet online, good for $1.7m in revenue.
However, Diamond Jo Casino in Dubuque and its Fanduel sportsbook overtook William Hill in handle, as handle skyrocketed 147.7% month-on-month to $23.8m. In terms of revenue, it remained behind, but by less than $80,000, after a 408.7% month-on-month revenue jump to $1.8m.
FanDuel and Boyd Gaming’s Diamond Jo brand took in a further $1.2m in revenue from the land-based operator’s casino in Worth, where players bet $11.4m.
The Wild Rose Casino Jefferson’s DraftKings sportsbook was a close third in both categories, as players bet $22.0m and the operator took in $1.0m. Almost all of both the sportsbook’s revenue and handle was made online.