After Iowa’s massive monthly boost in betting action in September, the state's October numbers ticked up only slightly.
The Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission announced that the Hawkeye State accepted $255.2 million in bets last month, just 3.8% more than the $245.7 million in September. While there is still growth, last month’s increase was much lower than the 74% monthly jump in September.
From the $255 million, bettors won $231.1 million, leaving sportsbooks with a combined $24.1 million of gross profit. The hold percentage fell slightly from 9.7% to 9.4%, which means that despite nearly $10 million more in bets, revenue stayed relatively unchanged.
Since statewide revenue barely changed, so too did the tax bill. Like in September, $1.6 million in taxes were reported in October.
Iowans still love to be online with 90.7% of the statewide handle coming from the state's mobile operators. And those betters saw higher payouts. Online sportsbooks only retained 9.2% of their bets, while the retail locations reported a hold of 12.8%.
DraftKings the top operator despite little growth
DraftKings maintained its lead over the state’s other 16 sportsbooks with a handle of $93.9 million. However, their month-over-month growth was just 1.3%. FanDuel closed that gap with $61.1 million in bets, an 18.8% jump.
Caesars Sportsbook remained in third place with $30.4 million, a slight decline from the $32.4 million in September. BetMGM also saw fewer bets as the book's handle was just $16 million, compared to the $17.1 million the previous month. No other operator saw more than $10 million in wagers.
