Nevada Continues October Handle-Records Trend

We can officially add the state of Nevada to the growing list of jurisdictions setting new standards in terms of their monthly sports betting handles. The Nevada Gaming Control Board was the latest regulatory body to report a record-handle for the month of October on Tuesday- this one stood for nearly one year.

While still far off the National mark set by Pennsylvania also in October, Nevada's keeps the Silver State in a solid second place as far as bet-friendly states go. It also gives the National handle a chance to reach an almost unfathomable record - $3 billion mark once all states have reported. We are still waiting on new Heavyweights Colorado and Illinois to share their numbers with Nevada's total taking the National handle over $2.5 billion.

Taking in the Record Numbers

Nevada sportsbooks raked in an incredible record-high $659,899,331 in October despite still not having their casinos running at full capacity. The $659.9 million handle represents a 14.7% increase from September's $575.1 million and a year-over-year spike of about 21% from October 2019 ($543.92 million).

October's haul bests Nevada's previous record monthly handle of $614.1 million set in November 2019.

October revenues also showed an markable spike. October sports betting revenue was $42,388,000 which is a 29% increase from the revenues from September. Year-over-year, revenues actually dropped 11.5% from $47,886,000 in October, 2019.

Football, both NFL and College, unsurprisingly was responsible for $441,123,139 of the total handle, basketball contributed $37,058,824, parlay cards generated $9,681,624, hockey generated $508,610 and “other” brought in $60,843,373.

How About the Mobile Handle?

Nevada continues to lag behind the other Heavyweight betting states in regard to their mobile take. Their insistence on maintaining an in-person sign-up policy continues to plague their overall numbers.

Most of the other "Top-5 Betting States" have remote sign-up procedures in place. Illinois, which initially adopted a similar in-person sign-up policy has temporarily created and extended on numerous occasions their COVID-driven mobile sign-up procedure.

When the dust settled, just $376,842,105 of the $659,899,331 handle came via mobile means, or 57.1% to the overall Nevada total. While that is up from 54.9% in September, Nevada’s mobile figures are far off those of the others occupying the Top 5.

For comparison sake, New Jersey and Pennsylvania both reported about 90% of their record October handles being generated by their mobile apps.

Comparing the Juggernauts

A $659,899,331 keeps Nevada in a solid second place in the race to be the top State-Dog. New Jersey reported by far the highest amount a state has ever taken in with $803.096 million in October - $142.3 million more than Nevada.

Pennsylvania, which has been threatening to overtake Nevada the last few months. This is mostly because of their strong mobile platform is third in the nation behind Nevada, with a $525,802,524 in October handle. That means Nevada held off Pennsylvania by an impressive $134 million.

Indiana came in as fourth-best sports betting market to report so far in October, with total handle of $230,932,251.

What It All Means

Nevada has held off some hard-charging states in the legal sports betting space, but there is no doubt about the state losing its status as the gold-standard in the US legal sports betting industry. One day New York will expand their legal platform, Florida will welcome their own platform, and Texas and California will get in the legal sports betting bandwagon.

Where Will Nevada Rank Then? Nevada will always be the grandfather of legal betting in the US but until their policies stop reflecting those of a bye-gone era, they will continue to fall behind. The Gaming Control Board actually scheduled and then had to cancel a public hearing on mobile betting earlier this month, so there is still a chance Nevada will jump out of the past and into the present and future.

Until then it will continue to be a Silver Medal for the Silver State.