LAS VEGAS – Nevada sportsbooks handled a record $614 million in bets in November, according to figures released Friday morning by the state’s Gaming Control Board – and it wasn’t just a record for the month of November, but any month ever, surpassing the prior record of $596.8 million this past March.
The record came despite ever-increasing competition with 20 states now offering legalized sports wagering. This was also the third straight month (coinciding with the football regular season in September) that Nevada outhandled New Jersey for the highest U.S. handle, though the Garden State also set its all-time monthly handle record in November at $562 million while Pennsylvania did the same at $316 million, so I believe this further proves there’s a huge appetite nationwide for sports betting (national legal handle exceeded $1.5 billion for the first time) and plenty of action to go around for every state getting into the industry.
Nevada vs. New Jersey
Monthly sports betting handle
Month Nevada New Jersey
May $317 million $318 million*
June $322 million* $317 million
July $235 million $251 million*
August $287 million $293 million*
September $546 million* $445 million
October $543 million* $487 million
November $614 million* $562 million
*Won the monthly title
Nevada sportsbooks also won $31 million (a hold of 5.05 percent) during November, an increase of 14 percent from November 2018, though it should be noted that it was down from the $47.9 million win in October.
Football is still king (especially the NFL, though Nevada’s figures combine both college and pro) and accounted for nearly $22.5 million of the November win, an increase of 21.95 percent from last November. Football is also behind the success of the “sports parlay cards” category, which added another $2.2 million in profits on a hold of 20.80 percent, though the win was down 2.16 percent from November 2018.
Basketball (again, combining both college and pro) also gave the books a profit of $8.1 million, though that was also down 24.24 percent from last year.
A couple of other numbers that jump off the November report below is that sportsbooks lost $6.18 million on baseball and “held” -2,571.95 percent. That’s due to the fact the Washington Nationals’ World Series win over the Houston Astros concluded on Oct. 30, so the GBC’s October report (which had the books winnings nearly $11.5 million with a whopping hold of 13.83 percent) included all the losing bets and only the winning tickets cashed by the end of business on Oct. 31. So, November’s figures included all the tickets cashed from Nov. 1-30 with very few losing baseball tickets to offset those).
November 2019 Nevada Gaming Figures
Category Win/Loss %Change Hold%
Overall $31,013,000 14.30 5.05
Football $22,497,000 21.95 5.85
Basketball $8,149,000 -24.24 4.89
Baseball -$6,180,000 4.90 -2.571.95
Sports Parlay Cards $2,338,000 -2.16 20.80
Other* $4,208,000 194.19 8.19
Horse Racing $3,767,000 -10.96 15.92
%Change is compared to same month last year
Hold% is percentage the books won/lost from the handle in that category
*Other includes hockey, golf, auto racing, MMA and all other sports except
the ones listed individually