Indiana Sports Betting Hits a Near Record High Due to March Madness After a Disappointing February Intake

Sports betting revenue in Indiana had taken a dip of late after hitting a record high at the beginning of the year in January. However, March Madness managed to give an expected boost to push revenue back up almost to where it was. After a disappointing handle take in February, sportsbooks in the state earned $476.8 million in handle in the month of March.

Indiana is known for being a state filled with basketball lovers. So, it comes as no surprise that March Madness would be an increased sports betting time for the state. As such, the revenue and handle boost makes complete sense.

This intake is up a whopping 16.5 percent from the previous month and is just 4.7 percent shy of the record-breaking handle hit in January, which was $500.1 million. The revenue reported from March was $32.3 million, almost twice the amount made in February, which was $17 million. Of this intake, around $3.1 million went to taxes in the state.

Legal sports betting launched in Indiana in September 2019. Since that launch, the total sports betting handle has reached over $7 billion and total tax revenue paid to the state has been $54.2 million.

As expected, during March Madness betting season, basketball betting was easily the biggest creator of sports betting handle for the state. Basketball betting alone for the month of March in Indiana created $274.1 million in Indiana sports betting handle. 

92.5 percent of the total sports betting handle in March was taken in by fourteen of the live sportsbooks in Indiana. The two leading sportsbooks in the state are two of the biggest sportsbooks in the country, FanDuel and DraftKings, which ranked number one and two respectively. Number three was BetMGM, and number four was Caesars Sportsbook.

This breakdown for the sportsbooks and their market share is actually pretty in line with how these operators fare country-wide. FanDuel and DraftKings tend to be at the top of the pack in most states with legal sports betting, partly due to their successful marketing campaigns. The other reason could be their existing fan bases from their starts as daily fantasy sports companies.

Meanwhile, BetMGM and Caesars Sportsbook have both been able to successfully leverage their reputations from their respective casinos to bring in customers. However, they still have a ways to go to reach the successes of DraftKings and FanDuel.

Now that March Madness is over, Indiana may need to look forward to MLB betting to help boost Indiana sports betting handle for the spring. However, it is likely that the market in the state will see a dip after such a successful betting period in March. That will remain to be seen until the numbers come in.

Written by Allie Nelson, our US Sports Betting Industry Expert.

The featured image for this post was sourced on Getty Images.