Nevada sportsbooks claim $43.9 M in March revenue despite Super Bowl payouts

The net revenue for football wagers in the Silver State was minus-$13.4 million, which was actually a 23.3% improvement compared to the nearly $17.5 million in payouts above handle in 2022. Despite the eight-figure payout, Nevada sportsbooks were still able to clear $40 million in adjusted revenue for the fourth straight month. That is only the second time that has happened in the post-PASPA era, with the other coming from October 2020 through January 2021.

Revenue was up 6.2% from February’s total of $41.3 million and 18.8% from last March’s $36.9 million. The hold of 5.3% was nearly one percentage point lower than February and exactly one percentage point higher than the same month last year. Handle was $830.5 million, sneaking into the last spot of the top 10 all-time in Nevada, but still 3.7% lower than the corresponding amount of $862.8 million in March 2022.

The state received nearly $3 million in tax receipts, lifting the total for the first three months of the year to $9.2 million. That is more than $1.2 million above the revenue generated in the opening quarter of 2022.

March Madness brings plenty of action

The bulk of the handle in Nevada came from basketball, highlighted by the NCAA Tournament. The $655.9 million handle represented 79% of the overall handle and was the second-highest monthly handle for basketball in the post-PASPA era. It was also 7.5% lower than the record $708.9 million in accepted wagers in March 2022.

Operator revenue from basketball totaled $44.9 million, slightly less than $3 million off last year’s total, as the 6.8% win rate this March was only one-tenth of a percentage point higher. The catch-all “other” category, which in Nevada includes tennis, golf, soccer, boxing, mixed martial arts, and auto racing, was the second-largest source of both handle and revenue, as the former was just shy of $85 million and the latter topped $7.3 million on an 8.6% hold.

Hockey handle reached $62.2 million, which is somewhat light considering the Vegas Golden Knights proved themselves to be of playoff caliber in March en route to the NHL’s Pacific Division title. The Golden Knights failed to make the playoffs in 2022, when March hockey handle was $73.9 million. Operators collected $4.9 million in revenue from those wagers this year, with the win rate just under 8%.

Parlay wagering was also light across the Silver State in March, totaling less than $400,000. The house collected just $39,000 from those bets, with the hold below 10% for the first time since last July. Parlay wagering is not as popular in Nevada as it is in other states. As a point of comparison, Mississippi had $7 million in parlay handle in March alone, surpassing the $4.7 million in the first three months of 2023 around the Silver State.

Q1 revenue up despite slip in handle

Revenue through the first three months of 2023 reached nearly $135.6 million, a 15.7% year-over-year increase despite an 11.4% decline in handle to more than $2.4 billion. Though the 5.6% year-to-date hold is well off the industry standard of 7%, it is still an improvement of 1.3 percentage points from the first quarter of 2022.

The mobile hold was 4.8% on $530.2 million, the sixth consecutive month it failed to reach 5%. At the same time, the $25.5 million in online revenue generated accounted for more than 58% of the total revenue — the first time it was over 50% since last November and the highest percentage since accounting for 62% last August.

Retail handle was $300.3 million, with the 6.1% hold the lowest since a 5.3% mark last August. Retail betting accounted for nearly 56% of the revenue in the first quarter of 2023, with the $75.7 million in revenue on $911.5 million handle fashioning an 8.3% hold.

By Chris Altruda