Nevada has been the king of the hill for a long time in the United States gambling industry. While New Jersey has passed the Silver State in sports betting action in a few months, it still sits in second place overall. That may not be the case much longer, however.
Mobile betting accounted for 56% ($11.2m) of Nevada’s $20.1 million in sports betting revenue for January of this year, which was the first month the state’s gaming regulators released figures for mobile wagering. That fell well short of the percentages recorded in both New Jersey and Pennsylvania, where more than 80% of total sports betting revenue came from online and mobile betting.
The main difference between online betting in Nevada and in the two East Coast states is that New Jersey and Pennsylvania have total betting online and there is no requirement to register in person in order to gamble over the internet. Gaming experts have said that Nevada needs to fix this issue or its days as the king of gambling in the US may be numbered.
Matt Kalish, co-founder of DraftKings, recently pinpointed in-person registration as the main reason that his company does not have a mobile betting app in Nevada.
The 56% figure for mobile wagering in Nevada is on par with expectations. William Hill, which has a 32% market share in NV, recently stated that online betting accounted for 60% of its total handle in the state.
The $20.1 million sports betting revenue for January in Nevada is a significant decrease from the $36.3 million recorded in December. A portion of that was because of a statewide hold of 4%.
One of the main reasons for the drop was because of a downturn in football betting. Revenues for that sport fell 27% to $5.8 million because of the low hold figure and fewer games played due to the NFL Playoffs. Basketball did well for the month with revenue of $12.5 million at a 5.5% hold.
Meanwhile, New Jersey took $53.6 million in sports wagers for January.