Fast Start For 2021: States Report Increase In Online Betting Activity

As the official sports betting numbers for January come in, multiple states are reporting new records for revenue and handle. Here is a roundup of some of the figures published so far:

New Jersey

January saw a very slight drop in overall betting handle in New Jersey. A total of $959 million was wagered vs $996 million in December. The elusive $1 Billion month will have to wait a bit longer. However, this didn’t stop the Garden State setting a new revenue record of $83 million, surpassing the December profits of $66 million.

Interestingly, basketball was the most popular sport to bet on in January with a total of 33% of the handle. Football saw 21% of the action. With the launch of the NBA season and fewer NFL games than during the regular season perhaps this should not be a surprise.

New Jersey remains comfortably the biggest sports betting state in the country by total handle.

Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania hit new heights in January with a record $615 million bet during the month. This is a significant step-up from the previous record which had been set just one month earlier. PA had seen $549 million worth of action in December.

This new level of wagering volume takes Pennsylvania within striking distance of Nevada for the number two spot nationwide behind New Jersey.

Michigan

Michigan online sports betting went live for the first time on January 22nd. It was a strong start for the Great Lakes State as in the remaining ten days of January it saw $115 million bet online. If you extrapolate that to 31 days it would mean $357 million over the course of a full month.

Furthermore, these numbers don’t include a further $30 – $50 million that was likely bet in the retail sector. Michigan will not take long to establish its position among the upper echelon of betting states.

Illinois

Illinois is a little slower to report and has just recently released its official numbers for December. Again it was good news as a new state record of $492 million in betting handle was set.

42% of the action was bet on football and 29% on basketball. Considering the NBA season didn’t begin until late December this bodes well for basketball action in future months. Soccer was the next most popular sport overall in the Prairie State.