- Sports Bet Montana took $3.45 million in bets over the four weeks ending in July, its lightest month of 2026.
- The five August weeks produced $3.68 million in handle, 26% below the same five weeks of 2025.
- The lottery kept $766,300 of the August wagers, a 20.8% hold, the highest of any 2026 month.
- Football’s return pushed the final August week past $1 million in handle for the first time since mid-July.
HELENA, Mont. – Sports Bet Montana took $3.45 million in wagers across the four weeks ending in July and $3.68 million across the five weeks ending in August, the two lightest stretches of 2026 for the state’s lottery-run sports betting monopoly, the Montana Lottery’s weekly wagering reports show. The lottery’s hold in the August weeks climbed to 20.8%, its highest of the year.
The Slide From The World Cup Weeks
The Montana Lottery publishes its weekly sports wagering reports rather than a monthly file; the monthly figures here are sums of those weekly reports, grouped by each week’s ending date. The four weeks ending in June totaled $4.16 million in handle, and the weeks ending July 4 and July 11 both cleared $980,000.
Handle thinned from there. Soccer carried 41.5% of wagers the week ending July 4 and led all sports at 29.5% the week ending July 18, according to the lottery’s sport-share breakdowns. Once the World Cup ended, soccer’s share fell to 14.6% and then 6.7% in the following weeks. Weekly handle dropped with it, falling to $698,043 the week ending July 18 and staying under $710,000 for six straight weeks, bottoming at $622,024 the week ending Aug. 22.
The July weeks still ran 4.6% ahead of the same four weeks of 2025. The August weeks did not: their $3.68 million trailed the same five weeks of 2025 by 26%, and their $766,300 in gross gaming revenue trailed by 12.8%.
| Week Ending | Handle | Gross Gaming Revenue |
|---|---|---|
| July 4 | $980,302 | $22,064 |
| July 11 | $1,067,345 | $244,040 |
| July 18 | $698,043 | $158,230 |
| July 25 | $704,810 | $59,866 |
| Aug. 1 | $681,161 | $79,748 |
| Aug. 8 | $690,033 | $184,845 |
| Aug. 15 | $671,034 | $174,901 |
| Aug. 22 | $622,024 | $146,856 |
| Aug. 29 | $1,014,936 | $179,950 |
A 20.8% Hold In A One-Book Market
The lottery kept $484,200 of the July wagers, a 14% hold, and $766,300 of the August wagers, a 20.8% hold that tops every other month of 2026. No other month this year has run above June’s 17.4%, and the January weeks held 10.1%.
Montana bettors have exactly one legal operator and no competing line. In the August weeks the operation kept about $21 of every $100 wagered, roughly double the rate at the start of the year and up from 17.7% in the same weeks of 2025.
The weekly swings behind those totals were wide. Bettors nearly broke even the week ending July 4, when the lottery won $22,064 on $980,302 in wagers, and the lottery won $244,040 the following week, its largest weekly take of the July and August weeks. Baseball dominated midsummer betting, taking as much as 73.4% of handle the week ending Aug. 1.
Montana legalized wagering in 2019 and remains one of the smallest markets in legal sports betting, a retail-only monopoly the lottery launched in 2020 through Intralot. The kiosk-and-app model is also why Montana sports betting reports a single statewide figure with no operator breakdown.
Football Season Is The Monopoly’s Peak
The summer’s slide ended where it usually does. Football took 37.9% of handle the week ending Aug. 29 as the college season opened, and the week’s $1,014,936 in wagers was the operation’s first seven-figure week since the one ending July 11, according to the lottery’s Aug. 31 report.
The operation’s biggest stretches track football. The five weeks ending in November 2025 totaled $8.39 million in handle, and the five ending in January 2026 reached $8.78 million, the highest of any month in the past year of reports. The lottery’s next weekly report is due for the week ending Sept. 5. The NFL season opens Sept. 9, so the report for the week ending Sept. 12 will be the first to include an NFL slate.
