Indiana Sees 25% Drop in Sports Betting Handle in April

There was an eye-opening slide in legal sports betting in one of the most consistent sports betting jurisdictions in America.

Indiana has two things going against it as we conclude "high season" for the best sportsbooks in the U.S. - the annual spring/summer sports betting slowdown is here with a bang and neighboring Ohio's newly minted legal sports betting scene has so far outperformed expectations.

Despite Indiana being on track for their first annual sports betting activity decline since their legal platform went live, it isn't all bad news out of the Hoosier State. With April's figures in the books, Indiana became just the sixth state in America to pass the $12 billion mark in wagers since the Supreme Court overturned their blanket ban on sports wagering in 2018 and the sixth to hit $1 billion in adjusted sports wagering gross revenue.

April handle and revenue and tax nosedive

An April handle drop off in Indiana certainly wasn't unexpected. The 2023 slide is in line with what happened last year during this time. Last year, Indiana sportsbooks saw a 24.4% decline in betting handle month-over-month from March to April.

The Indiana Gaming Commission is reporting a total of $321.4 million being taken in by Hoosier State sportsbooks in April, when an NFL-free and reduced basketball schedule plagued the betting menus. It is the lowest handle Indiana has seen since August, thus signaling the start of the annual summer sports betting slowdown.

April's handle came in 25.8% less than the $433 million that was reported in March, when the NCAA Basketball tournament buoyed the betting scene in the Hoosier State. Year-over-year, the Indiana betting sites handle was 10.7% less than the $360 million reported in April 2022.

Adjusted Gross revenues for Indiana’s legal sports betting industry came in at $29.4 million in April off of a 9.2% hold. That’s a sharp $14 million drop from March’s $43.7 million but a surprising year-over-year increase from the $29.6 million in sportsbook profits from April 2022.

Taxes paid by sportsbooks to the state amounted to $2.8 million in April, down from $4.1 million in March but slightly higher than the $2.72 million in April 2022.

FanDuel Indiana leapfrogs DraftKings

The battle between the two top sportsbooks in the country keeps playing out in the Indiana market. FanDuel and DraftKings have swapped spots the last five months and in April, it was FanDuel’s turn to claim top spot among Indiana mobile betting sites.

FanDuel accounted for $106 million of the overall $321.4 million April handle in the Hoosier State with $11.8 million in revenues and a healthy 11.1% hold. DraftKings Indiana took in $101.4 million with $8.9 million in revenues and an 8.8% win rate. DraftKings month-over-month Indiana handle fell a whopping 29.7%.

BetMGM was third with $34.2 million in bets and $3.3 million in revenue, and Caesars rounded out the top 4 with $27.2 million in bets and $1.5 million in revenues.

Indiana remains in rarified air

Despite Ohio taking a bite out of Indiana's overall wagering activity, and the fact that the state's betting sites are massively diminished when the NFL and basketball aren't dominating the conversation, there is no denying the Hoosier State's standing in the entirety of the U.S. legal sports betting scene.

New Jersey, New York, Nevada, Illinois, and Pennsylvania are the only other states in America to hit $12 billion in overall wagers and $1 billion in adjusted gross revenues since 2018.

The emergence of Ohio will likely result in the Hoosier State having a lower overall handle in 2023 than it did in 2022. It would be the first time since Indiana betting site went live that overall year-over-year numbers could drop.

So far this year, overall betting activity in Indiana has slipped 11.9%. The good news is that sports betting site revenue has increased 20.2%, thanks to a year-to-date 8.9% win rate, which checks in 2.4% higher over the same period in 2022.