Billion-Dollar Sports Betting Handle Streak Ends for Illinois in February

Given that February was a shorter month with the Super Bowl being the only major football game, lower numbers were expected.

In February, Illinois saw the end of its four-month streak of legal sports betting handles surpassing a billion dollars.

According to the Illinois Gaming Board, the state's handle for February was $875.4 million, down 19% from the record-setting handle of $1.07 billion in January. However, the February handle was still up 22% compared to the same month last year.

Illinois now joins Nevada, New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania as the only states in the country to have surpassed a handle of $20 billion since 2019. 

Nevertheless, sports betting in Illinois still generated $68.4 million in revenue with a hold of 7.8%, which was 1.2% lower than January's figure. The state collected $10.3 million in taxes, down from the previous month's $14.4 million, with Cook County (including Chicago) contributing over $700,000 in tax revenue from a 2% levy on adjusted gross revenue of $35 million in wagers.

FanDuel overcomes loss on football

Mobile sports betting dominated Illinois' overall handle, accounting for $852 million, while retail sportsbooks contributed around $2 million. FanDuel emerged as the leader in online sports betting sites for February, despite incurring a $975,000 loss on football alone.

FanDuel achieved a monthly-best win rate of nearly 11%, resulting in $33.2 million in revenue from a handle of over $305 million. DraftKings ranked second among mobile sportsbooks with a handle of $277 million and revenue of $18.2 million from a hold of 6.6%.

BetRivers secured the third spot with a handle of $80.2 million and revenue of $5.6 million (6.9% hold). Meanwhile, PointsBet boasted the second-highest mobile win rate in the state for February at 8.2%.

Illinois is eagerly anticipating the entry of Circa Sports, which recently announced its plans to enter the competition around football season.