Nevada sportbooks had their best year ever in both handle and revenue.
According to state figures made public Thursday, the books handled $5.31 billion in wagers in 2019, up from last year’s record of $5.01 billion. Revenue grew 9.5% in 2019 to $329.1 million.
The $301 million won in 2018 was also the previous record.
The Nevada casinos won more than $12.03 billion from gamblers in 2019. Sports betting accounted for about 2.7% of the revenue, a new all-time high percentage. Sports betting hovered around 1% in the 1990s and early 2000s, according to data from the UNLV’s Center for Gaming Research.
The legal sportsbooks had a win percentage of 6.2% in 2019, a very strong year against gamblers, as the average since the 1980s is about 5.55%.
Nevada was the largest legal sports betting market in the nation in 2019, though New Jersey had about $4.6 billion in handle and should eventually overtake the Silver State.
Unlike New Jersey, Nevada doesn’t release a breakdown between retail and internet betting handle. In New Jersey, online is approaching a 90% share. Nevada is expected to release that data in 2020.
Drop/revenue by sport
Football: Roughly $1.9 billion in handle was up from the record $1.8 billion in 2018. Revenue of $122.4 million bested 2014’s record of $113.7 million.
Basketball: Handle of about $1.7 billion was up from 2018’s record $1.5 billion. Win of $94.4 million was off from 2018’s record $99.6 million.
Baseball: About $1.1 billion in wagers eclipsed 2018’s mark of just over $1 billion, but it was about equal to 2017’s record handle. Revenue from the game was $57.2 million, up from a record $47.1 million in 2018.
Other: About $590 million was bet on the other sports, up from 2018’s record of about $560 million. Nearly $41 million in winnings were up from 2017’s record of $32.3 million.
