Sportsbooks Happy With Football Betting Handle, Hold

• Hold rates in September are always high but three top producing states are showing historically high hold rates.
• This means bettors aren’t winning well, giving more money to the sportsbooks and local governments.

NEW YORK – As the fall returns, so does football and its betting revenue information. In the states that have reported September’s numbers, it’s clear sportsbooks are happy.

The NFL and college football are making people bet much more and lose at a great rate.

Between New Jersey, Indiana and New York, $2.5 billion was bet on sports in September. Extrapolating from Indiana’s report, $1.009 billion of that was bet on football.

Indiana sportsbooks alone saw $153.8 million bet on football. New York took the sizeable chunk. But aside from the obvious increase in betting handle, the hold rates skyrocketed.

This strong increase in the hold rate means more money for sportsbooks. More money for sportsbooks means unhappy bettors.

New York is the prime example. Sportsbooks in NY took in their sixth–highest amount of money for bets in a month. But, bettors gave NY sportsbooks their highest monthly revenue ever – by over $20 million.

Likewise, New Jersey’s $97.9m monthly sportsbook revenue was for the record books. One of the greats, it was NJ’s second-best revenue month of all time. And, it was the eighth best producing month of sports betting in legal sports betting history.

With many more states with legal sports betting to report in the coming days, expect major growth. Traditionally, sportsbooks’ hold percentages in September are among the highest on the year. Oftentimes, evident from above, they extend into double digits.

With new football players on teams and hopeful fan betting, sportsbooks love September. Before paying taxes, sportsbooks in these states made $292.4 million during September. Expect almost $1 billion of monthly sportsbook revenue if these numbers hold elsewhere.

News tags: College Football | Indiana | New Jersey | New York | NFL