by John Brennan, NJ Online Gambling
The “handle” — that is, the amount of money bet on sports — tends to get most of the publicity when a state like New Jersey releases its monthly figures as it did on Wednesday.
But in January, the real news was the eye-popping gross revenue figure of $53.6 million, easily a new record for the burgeoning industry.
That came on handle of $540.1 mm, meaning that the sportsbooks landed a rate of return of nearly 10%.
Compare that to just one month earlier, when a slightly larger handle — $557.8 mm — produced only about half the revenue, $29.4 mm.
The only other month with NFL games that came close for the sportsbooks was October, with a then-record $46.4 mm revenue on $487.9 mm in bets on all sports.
The January windfall for the operators was nearly triple what it achieved the previous January, when $18.8 mm in revenue was accumulated off $385.3 mm in bets.
The big handle in January 2020 capped a massive football season, with $2.59 billion wagered in those five months and football leading the charge.
And what does this do for New Jersey taxpayers? The state collected a record $6.6 million in tax revenue in January, a big boost from $3.7 million a month earlier.
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