Fourth Straight $1B Betting Month For Nevada Sportsbooks

• Nevada’s sportsbooks handled over $1.109 billion in sports bets in January, up 9.3% from December and 71.6% compared to January 2021.
• Despite these increases, Nevada’s sportsbooks posted their sixth consecutive month with a sub-par hold rate: if this trend continues, Nevada’s sports betting revenue may slow.

CARSON CITY, Nev. – Nevada, one of the top sports betting markets in the United States, broke their single-month sports betting handle record in January with over $1.109 billion bet on sports.

January Another Huge Month For Nevada Sportsbooks

Nevada’s sportsbooks turned over $1,109,329,327 in legal sports wagers in January, according to a report released by the Nevada Gaming Control Board.

Impressively, January was Nevada’s fourth consecutive month with over $1 billion in legal sports betting handle.

Nevada’s sports betting handle is also up 9.3% month-over-month (compared to December 2021, when Nevada’s sportsbooks turned over about $1.104 billion in sports wagers.) Nevada’s January sports betting handle is also up 71.6% year-over-year.

In January, sportsbooks in Nevada held 4.5% of their handle for $49,997,000 in sports betting revenue.

This is a remarkable increase from a month prior, that hold rate was just 1.44%, good for just $15.96 million in sports betting revenue  in December 2021.

Low Nevada Sports Betting Hold Rates: A Trend?

While the month-over-month increases in handle, revenue, and hold rate are certainly encouraging to Nevada’s sportsbook operators, there is one alarming trend.

Compared to a year ago, Nevada brought in 4.6% less revenue in January 2022, despite a significantly larger handle.

This is largely a result of a high (8.62%) hold rate in January 2021, which was nearly double January 2022’s hold rate.

Unfortunately, the lower hold rate seems more like a trend than an anomaly – for the past six months (dating back to August 2021), Nevada’s sports betting hold rate has not surpassed 6.89% (September 2021).

Three months of the six saw a hold rate of less than 5%: December 2021 (1.44%), October 2021 (4.39%), and August 2021 (3.36%).

Prior to that six month stretch, Nevada was on a six-month run of high hold rates. From October 2020 through July 2021, Nevada’s sportsbooks did not post a hold rate lower than 6.22% and recorded several extremely strong months, including November 2020 (10.14%).

While it remains to be seen if Nevada can return to its previous high hold rates, it has been over half a year since sportsbooks in Nevada consistently posted high hold rates.

If the trend continues for much longer, sportsbooks may have to get creative to increase profitability.

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