Gamblers in Iowa wagered $232 million in March on sports, which was around one million dollars below March of last year.
Racing and Gaming Administrator Brian Ohorilko says that was still much better than the recent trend. “The sports industry in Iowa had been trending lower every month, year over year, since September of 2022. And so, essentially, that was six consecutive months of lower handle from the previous year,” Ohorilko says.
He says there were concerns the trend would lead to a bigger year-to-year difference in the March betting, but the difference ended up not being that significant. “I think many people in the industry here in Iowa, we’re happy to see that. It is quite possible that some of those bumps were due to the local interest in March. March Madness really kind of drives that that month in terms of sports wagering handle,” he says.
Ohorilko says the market appears to be leveling off after the early rush to get operating, and lots of incentives to get people to sign up.
“We’re to a period of time where I think the market will become more predictable in this state, the number of operators are leveling off,” Ohorilko says. “We’re not seeing a lot of new companies applying for licenses. In fact, we’re actually seeing a bit of consolidation in the market for a number of companies.”
March is the last big betting period for the current sports gambling fiscal year that ends in June. Ohorilko says the next fiscal year that starts in July will let them know more about where sports gambling is headed. “You know, next year will be pretty telling but we we certainly saw a decline in handle this football season. And now we’re starting to kind of see some leveling off of the market, and that is what I would expect, as we head into the summer and into football season here in 2023,” Ohorilko says.
Sports betting began in Iowa in August of 2019.