When Illinois first launched sports betting, Indiana remained relatively steady when it came to sports betting revenue. However, now that the competition is coming from the West and the East with the launch of Ohio, year-over-year declines are happening.
Indiana bettors wagered $433 million in March, which is a 21.6% jump of the $356 million bet in February, it is a 9.3% decline from 2022. The decline is in line with January and February, which were down 14.6% and 13% respectively. This is the first time Indiana sports betting revenues have declined in these early-year months since its launch in 2019.
Unsurprisingly, March Madness drove the action, with $224.3 million of the handle coming from basketball bets. Parlay bets accounted for almost $128 million in wagers.
Adjusted gross revenue for the month was $42.8 million for a hold percentage of 9.9%. Operators paid just shy of $4.1 million in tax revenue to the state.
DraftKings just edged out FanDuel in the handle battle with $144.2 million to FanDuel’s $136.1 million. However, it was FanDuel who posted the most revenue for the month with $16.2 million to DraftKings Sportsbook’s $13.4 million.
The two books combined for 69.3% of the online marketplace. The next-closest competitors were Caesars ($40.8 million) and BetMGM ($40.1 million). After that, there is a steep drop-off to the fifth-most handle, which is BetRivers ($11.6 million) just edging out Barstool ($11.5 million).
On the retail front, Hollywood Lawrenceburg’s retail Barstool Sportsbook continued to lead the field with $7.2 million in wagers of the nearly $29 million in retail wagers. Bally’s Evansville had the dubious distinction of producing ten times the betting activity as its online counterpart, Bally Bet. The Evansville sportsbook accepted $1.4 million in bets while the app accepted just $126,683 in wagers. The only other app with less activity was SBK, which did $79,341 in handle.