With revenue reports for the sports betting market dropping in the US, the Legal Sports Report (LSR) looked at the latest numbers to draw a conclusion.

Dustin Gouker began by briefly summarising the four-year revenue period in the country since the removal of PASPA in 2018: “Four years into this, $10m in revenue from sports betting has been generated, $1.5bn in taxes from all the activity that we are able to track since the fall of PASPA circa 2018. 

“We usually talk about the handle but now we’re getting into revenue and these are some pretty big numbers. I’m sure I would’ve bet on the under $10m in revenue if we talked about this four years ago. I thought this whole thing was gonna be much slower. I thought we’d be in far fewer states.”

Gouker noted his surprise at the market growth of Illinois, saying: “The other interesting thing I saw is Illinois was just behind New Jersey for May numbers. It is a market that had been throttled by the in-person registration requirement being on and off and then on again. 

“You had to actually go to a casino to sign up for points in time for online sports betting in Illinois, it was meant to get people into the casinos and was obviously one of the dumbest policies you can possibly create. 

“But it’s interesting because that market had to start and stop, it launched during the pandemic, but it has overcome all of that. It’s a big state, lots of sports fans, and it’s fascinating how it has grown this quickly. I’m not sure if it’s going to be number two in the NFL season ahead of New Jersey and behind New York, but it’s possible.”

You can watch the featured video for more information on US sports betting revenues and added comments from LSR Lead Writer Pat Evans.