United States sports bettors have wagered more than $400 billion since the pastime was legalized in a federal court in 2018.
The reveal of Maryland and Kansas’ September sports betting revenue reports on Thursday officially pushed the U.S. past the enormous threshold.
There’s also no reason to believe that the industry’s growth will slow down, particularly in the coming months.
38 states and Washington D.C. legalized sports betting in the six years since the landmark decision.
2023 was the most successful year of sports betting on record, accumulating 30.27 percent of the country’s total betting handle since the first days of legal sports betting.
The first nine months of 2024 already produced 22.04 percent of the all-time national betting handle, just behind 2022’s mark of 23.44 percent. The general expectation is that 2024 will topple 2023 for the most lucrative year of sports wagering once the ball drops on New Year’s Eve.
November 2023 and December 2023 were the most successful months of sports betting with handles of $14.5 billion and $14 billion, respectively. January 2024 is fourth all-time at $13.9 billion.
That’s where the optimism for the end-of-year outlook comes from. The popularity of NFL and NBA betting, combined with other in-season sports such as the NHL and various soccer leagues makes the winter months the most profitable and active time of year for legal sportsbooks.
Notably, the reported betting handle doesn’t include figures from Nebraska, which doesn’t report gambling numbers from its casinos with retail sports betting, or Florida, whose sports betting market is under the monopolized control of the Seminoles and Hard Rock.
In total, sportsbooks already accepted $88.2 billion in wagers since the turn of the year. That’s 72.8 percent of the $121.1 billion reported last year.
The current trajectory suggests that sportsbooks will finish with $117.6 billion in bets, though again, there’s an expected influx of bets on the horizon.
New Jersey leads the all-time American market with $53.8 billion in combined wagers. New York is second at $49.6 billion, followed by the known gambling capital of America, Nevada.
While New Jersey legalized sports betting shortly after it received the federal stamp of approval in 2018, New York only launched its market a week into 2022, making it the most active market on a per-day basis.
The states with the highest all-time betting handles include:
New Jersey – $53.8 billion
New York – $49.6 billion
Nevada – $42.4 billion
Illinois – $37.6 billion
Pennsylvania – $31.5 billion
Colorado – $19.5 billion
Arizona – $18.1 billion
Indiana – $17.85 billion
Virginia – $17.84 billion
Michigan – $16.8 billion
FanDuel still leads the American gaming scene with a total market share of 35 percent, per a report by gaming research company Eilers & Krejcik Gaming earlier this year. DraftKings (32 percent), BetMGM (11 percent), and Caesars (six percent) rounded out the top four.
