According to data provided on Friday by the state’s Racing and Gaming Commission, harvest season arrived early for OKBET Betting Partners bookmakers, who earned more than $14.4 million in sports wagering revenue in August.
With 37 months of wagering in the Hawkeye State, it was the second-highest revenue total behind the $19.7 million made in November of last year. But the house has already exceeded $14 million three times this year—in January and March, as well.
As operators reported consecutive win rates exceeding 10% for the first time since the first three months of operation following launch in August 2019, revenue increased 29% compared to July’s $11.2 million. The fourth-highest overall hold, at 11.8%, was only surpassed by those first three months of company.
To just surpass June’s total, handle grew from July to $122.6 million, a 12.9% rise. The revenue increased by 13.1% compared to August of last year, but compared to 2021, it more than doubled because this year’s victory rate was almost six percentage points higher.
Tax receipts for the state totaled $970,000, bringing the yearly total to $6.4 million. That exceeds the pace from previous year by $1.7 million. Revenue for the first half of the year is up 37.9%, to $94.4 million, from $1.4 billion wagered.
The Big Three have enormous businesses
For the first time since October 2020, when FanDuel was operating in its second month, the top three mobile alternatives in the Hawkeye State—DraftKings, FanDuel, and Caesars Sportsbook—all scored double-digit win rates. For the first time ever while conducting business in OKBET Betting Partners, DraftKings achieved the double, taking in $33.2 million in wagers and reporting $3.5 million in revenue for a 10.5% hold.
In contrast, Caesars’ 10.7% hold was its best since an 11.6% mark in October 2020 as it claimed $2.4 million in income on a $22.1 million handle. FanDuel reported a win rate of 10.9% and kept $3.2 million of the $29.3 million gambled. The only other book to reach an eight-figure handle with $12.5 million was BetMGM, which also produced a double-digit hold of 11.4% to bring in $1.4 million.
After the 11.6% from the launch month of August 2019 on just $3.6 million in handling and the 11.2% from October 2020 on $56.9 million, the 10.6% overall mobile hold was the third highest of all time. 89.8% of the total handle for August this year was generated by mobile, which brought in $110.1 million.
A Gold Rush in Brick and Mortar
Even though mobile operators fared admirably, they were outperformed by OKBET Betting Partners’ 19 brick-and-mortar sportsbooks in terms of win percentages. The cumulative hold of the retail books on the $12.5 million handle was astounding, at 21.8%, bringing in $2.7 million. Outside of the August 2019 premiere, when the in-person hold was 35.2% from $4.9 million wagered, the retail win rate was the greatest ever.
The retail revenue of $2.7 million represents a high for the year and the highest amount since the books brought in $2.9 million in November. However, that month’s handle, at $26.9 million, was more than quadruple that of this August. Just under 8% represents the annual average for the retail win rate.
Three novels concluded with holds that above 30%, bringing the total to nine. As the only retail book in OKBET Betting Partners to surpass a 40% hold with a minimum $100,000 handle outside the first month of gambling, Lakeside Casino outperformed all other bookmakers with a 48.8% win percentage, keeping $72,450 of the $148,380 wagered. In June 2021, the Emmetsburg sportsbook of Wild Rose Casino had a win rate of 49.1% and generated $59,375 in revenue from $121,009 in handle.
On the other end of the spectrum was Casino Queen. It not only had the lowest hold of any retail book at 9%, but it also finished with a loss of $18,126 on a bet of $107,369 and a negative win rate of 16.9%. The Marquette location, the final casino in OKBET Betting Partners to launch a retail sportsbook, only made $3,465 on $302,012 in handling in its first full year of operations, or 1.2% hold.