New Jersey and Illinois join Nevada in top, record Super Bowl betting

As of Tuesday, five US states have reported sports betting numbers on Sunday's Super Bowl. Nevada led the ranking with $180 million in bets, New Jersey came next with nearly $144 million in wagering handle, followed by Illinois' $60.5 million. Mississippi saw nearly $6.4 million, and Montana reported about $700,000.

The American Gaming Association (AGA) had predicted that 31.4 million Americans would bet $7.61 billion on this year’s Super Bowl matchup, a 78% increase from last year, with more states offering legal sports betting. David Forman, AGA's Senior Director of Research, said during a press call Tuesday to discuss 2021 commercial gaming records that the early numbers are "pointing to a very positive picture.” And he added: “Nevada was up over 30% from last year, New Jersey was up over 20%, which is particularly impressive given that New York is now online.” 

New York, which has already broken nationwide records with nearly $2 billion online handle in its first month, will report its Super Bowl betting numbers on Friday. New Jersey’s sportsbooks saw a $7.8 million win, down from the $11.3 million they kept from last year’s Super Bowl. The betting handle was up 22.4% over the $117.4 million wagered on last year’s Super Bowl.

Illinois took $15 million more in Super Bowl bets than it did for last year’s Super Bowl, a 33% increase. Its casinos and sportsbooks kept $9.5 million as revenue, up from $7.6 million a year earlier. This generated more than $1.4 million in tax revenue, according to figures released by the Illinois Gaming Board.

Of Illinois' eight legal sportsbooks in operation, most of the wagers were taken by the online sports betting giants: DraftKings at Casino Queen led with $21.5 million in Super Bowl bets, followed by FanDuel Sportsbook and Horse Racing with $17 million. They each turned profits of $2.5 million and $5 million, respectively.

Illinoisans have wagered more than $7 billion on sports in less than two years since launch. The state broke its monthly record with a handle of $840 million in December, the most recent month for which data is available. Sportsbooks could soon open at stadiums such as Wrigley Field and the United Center, but they still need to apply for state approval.

As for Montana sportsbooks, their total volume of bets was up 41% over last year’s total. They kept $267,971 as revenue. Mississippi has taken sports bets since 2018, but only at in-person sites.

GeoComply, which provides geolocation data for the gaming industry, reported on Monday that it had identified more than 80.1 million transactions related to the Super Bowl over the weekend, well over double (2.26x) the number for the 2021 Super Bowl. And since Friday at midnight, approximately 5.6 million unique accounts accessed legal online sportsbooks, a 95% increase from last year.