The Dreaded February Sports Betting Dip Hits Nevada...And Other Things

After a record-breaking month of January 2021, the entire U.S. sports betting market positioned itself for the dreaded February dip in sports betting activity. True to form, the dip came to be, and nowhere was it felt more harshly than in the state of Nevada.

After taking in a record of nearly $647 million of the total $4.36 billion in sports betting handle registered nationwide in January, Nevada bookmakers saw their handle dip to $553.8 in February. That's a dip of 14.4% from one month to the next.

To be honest, the dip was expected, though the extent of the dip might have been a little bit of a surprise. Of the $553.8 in handle that was taken in, the mobile gambling handle also dipped to $316.3 million.

The good news is the mobile gambling percentage for Nevada remained steady at about 57%. Of course, that is still significantly lower than states like Indiana, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey. In those states, mobile sports betting handle has been running between 80% and 90% of each state's respective sports betting handle. With legislation coming forth that will allow Nevada gamblers to register for sports betting accounts online instead of having to go to retail outlets, there is still hope Nevada's online bookmakers will see their mobile betting numbers soon approaching the 80% mark.

There are a couple of viable reasons for the dip in February's numbers. First, February only has 28 days. While having three fewer days than in January matters, it probably doesn't matter enough to account for a $94 million dip in betting activity. That puts the focus on the other reason for the dip.

Historically, February is the lowest sports betting month of the year. Other than the Super Bowl (see 2021 numbers below), MLB hasn't yet started, the NFL and NCAA FB are on sabbatical, and bettors are saving money for March Madness. It's the perfect storm that rains each year on the parade of the nation's bookmaker.

Nevada Super Bowl Numbers Are In

This year's Super Bowl between the NFL Champion Tampa Bay Bucs and the Kansas City Chiefs produced handle that was pretty much in line with expectations. The total Super Bowl net revenue across Nevada's operators came in at $12.6 million with half of that going back to bettors who took wins in other sports markets.

The big winner for Nevada bookmakers in February was basketball (college and the NBA) where bookmakers claimed just over $19 million in net revenue. With a total of $326 million wagered on basketball during February, the win rate for bookmakers was 5.8%, which is pretty much in line with expectations.

Going into March, the nation's sports betting operators are expecting big numbers to come out of college basketball with the current March Madness format covering three weeks of exciting action. After tossing in what are expected to be solid numbers from the conference tournaments, U.S. bookmakers are looking to resume the month-over-month record numbers for handle that started in September of last year.