State publishes sports wagering trends

Iowa’s sports betting environment is heating up, according to recently published tax revenue data from the state’s Racing and Gaming Commission.

Fiscal year 2021 saw greater tax revenue from sports and fantasy sports betting than the year prior by a wide margin, with revenue from every quarter coming in higher than the same time last year, although the fourth quarter saw a $500,000 dip from the third.

“In the fourth quarter you don’t have NFL or college football … This is a very cyclical business,” ELITE Sportsbook Chief Risk Officer Jay Rood said. “It’s very driven by what the sports schedule is.”

The numbers reflect rallying activity after 2020’s dismal fourth quarter, sparked by a number of changes.

First and foremost, Rood said the normalized schedules of sports after a year wracked by COVID-19 restrictions made things more attractive for sports gamblers.

"You’re looking at April to July (2020) there wasn’t a whole lot going on,“ he said. ”We were booking boat riding, we were booking Ping-Pong and a little bit of golf … but there was basically no activity going on for a good 10 weeks in 2020. This year was more of a normal schedule.“

To a lesser degree, sports betting in Iowa benefited from the addition of internet fantasy sports betting.

“In FY 2021, internet fantasy sports generated approximately $19,000 in state taxes,” a news release from the Iowa Legislative Services Agency said. “No state tax revenue was generated by internet fantasy sports in FY 2020.”

As a rule of thumb, Rood said most of sports betting took place in virtual settings, rather than in-person.

“Mobile wagering is predominantly the makeup of all the handling,” he said. “It’s probably double on the mobile than in-person, if not a little bit more … If you were required to go to the counter and bet in person for every game, traditionally we saw in the past that that customer would come to the counter anywhere between three to five times during a trip. On a mobile app, they could do three to five times on a given day.”

While it generated over $7.5 million in state revenue, only $1.75 million were allocated from the Sports Wagering Fund in FY 2021, all of it to gambling treatment programs, according to the state data. The other $5.8 million remained in the account, unspent.

Comments: Kalen.McCain@southeastiowaunion.com