Illinois Sports Betting Handle Drops in July, But Still Finishes 3rd Nationally

When Illinois finally reported its sports wagering financial figures for July, the results put the state in third place among all jurisdictions for sports betting handle.

The last state to report its July figures among more than 30 sports betting jurisdictions (some sports gambling states have already reported their August numbers and New York updates its sports betting action weekly), Illinois sportsbooks reported a handle of $516.4 million. That was down 17.8% from June ($628.46 million) but up 40% from July 2021 ($369.13 million).

Sports gambling total revenue in Illinois for July was about $46.1 million. The July revenue was up 12.8% from June (almost $40.9 million) and up 22.5% from July 2021 ($37.6 million).

Taxes derived from Illinois betting apps in July were about $7.45 million, up 11.5% from June (almost $6.69 million).

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Illinois Sports Betting Handle, July vs. June

	Total handle	Mobile Handle	Revenue
July	$516.415M	$496.147M	$46.080M
June	$628.460M	$604.957M	$40.867M
Change	Down 17.8%	Down 18.0%	Up 12.8%

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Baseball Betting Tops in Illinois

The top five individual sports for attracting betting action in Illinois were, by handle: Baseball, $201.56 million; tennis, $78.73 million; soccer, $30.43 million; basketball, $25.90 million, and boxing/MMA, 18.8 million. “Other sports” handle was $25.5 million, and parlay handle was $120.16 million.

For August and September, Illinois MLB betting could show an even bigger increase thanks to a push by the Chicago White Sox for the AL Central crown. The White Sox are currently in second place.

Among the top states for sports betting handle in July, Illinois with its $516.4 million was third finishing behind New York ($805 million) and New Jersey ($532 million) and ahead of Nevada ($419 million). The rest of the top 10 in handle were: Pennsylvania ($336.5 million), Arizona ($290.5 million), Virginia ($266 million), Colorado ($258.4 million), Michigan ($225 million) and Indiana ($206.6 million).

For all sports wagering jurisdictions in July, total sports betting handle was $4.532 billion and total sports betting revenue nationally was $376.58 million.

NFL Will Help the Numbers

Although just preseason NFL betting will show up in the August numbers, when Illinois does report September numbers, it should see a huge increase. With the best Illinois sportsbook promos we've seen all year coming out for NFL season, the numbers should look better.

According to GeoComply, a geolocation firm, Illinois had the fifth-highest volume of NFL betting over the opening weekend. It probably helped that the Chicago Bears were at home and beat the San Francisco 49ers, 19-10, on Sunday.

Illinois NFL betting showed a 60% increase (3 million) in volume last weekend compared to last year.