U.S. Sports Betting Data

I've been tracking the regulated U.S. sports betting market since New Jersey took the first post-PASPA wager in June 2018. Eight years later, the market has processed more than $600 billion in cumulative legal wagers and shows no signs of slowing. The data below tells the story of who's winning, who's losing, and where the money actually goes.

Our team of journalists and analysts maintains this live database, built on state agency filings, in collaboration with independent analyst Alfonso Straffon, a longtime industry observer, former sports trader, and equities analyst at Deutsche Bank. We update on or about the third Thursday each month. You're seeing operator-level figures and state-level data through April 2026.

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1. Handle market share by operator (March 2022 to present)

Key Insights:

• DraftKings reclaimed the handle crown from FanDuel in May 2025 and has held it since. As of the latest data, DraftKings leads with 35.5% to FanDuel's 31.9%, a gap of 3.6 percentage points that has remained fairly static.
• The combined duopoly share currently sits at 67.4% of all dollars wagered in the regulated market, down from historical highs near 75%. The gap hasn't been filled by a single challenger. It's been distributed among BetMGM (9.3%), Fanatics (7.3%), bet365 (5.2%), and Caesars (4.9%).
• bet365 has quietly climbed past Caesars into the fifth-largest operator by handle share. The UK-based giant entered the U.S. market in New Jersey in 2019, expanded slowly, and now processes more dollars than Caesars.
• Fanatics' August 2025 surge to 13% was likely inflated by promotional spending ahead of football season. It settled to 7.3% and has stayed there, still a meaningful improvement from where Fanatics started.
• theScore Bet (formerly ESPN Bet) no longer appears in the tracked operator set. PENN Entertainment exercised its opt-out clause in November 2025, shuttering ESPN Bet and relaunching as theScore Bet on December 1, coinciding with Missouri's market opening. ESPN subsequently partnered with DraftKings for odds integration across its media properties. Rush Street Interactive (BetRivers) now shows as the smallest tracked operator at 1.1% handle share.

Note: The yellow spike for Caesars in early 2022 traces to a massive ad-and-bonus blitz timed to New York's launch and the NFL playoffs. The momentum didn't stick, but Caesars has held steady in the 5-7% range for both sports betting and the more lucrative iCasino sector. With bet365 now ahead on handle, Caesars' grip on that tier is loosening.

2. GGR market share by operator (March 2022 to present)

Key Insights:

• Revenue tells a different story than handle. FanDuel leads on GGR with 37.2% to DraftKings' 33.7%, a spread of 3.5 percentage points. That's a significant expansion from earlier in the year, when the two were separated by barely a point. DraftKings is winning the volume battle and losing the margin battle.
• FanDuel has historically carried a higher parlay mix and correspondingly higher hold. Flutter, FanDuel's parent, has claimed superior pricing systems and a more effective parlay engine. With DK's GGR share sliding while its handle share holds, Flutter's claims are looking more credible, not less.
• Fanatics has climbed to 8.1% of GGR, up from 7.2% earlier.
• BetMGM sits at 6.9% of GGR. It had been approaching 10% of the revenue pie in mid-2025 but slipped. Still gunning for a podium position.

Also note: Hard Rock Bet, backed by the Seminole Tribe, will use its Florida monopoly position to drive national expansion, but Florida figures aren't publicly reported. One more thing: the impact of prediction markets (Kalshi, Polymarket, plus DraftKings and FanDuel's own vehicles) is not visible in these figures. Analyst estimates from early 2026 peg sports betting cannibalization at 0-5%.

3. Handle by state, last twelve months (May 2025 through April 2026)

Key Insights:

• $26.2 billion wagered in New York over the trailing 12 months. The state's nine regulated sportsbooks have averaged about $2.18 billion per month, more than the entire LTM total in most other states.
• That dominance isn't surprising given New York's population and per capita income, concentrated around New York City, Long Island, and Westchester County.
• Illinois at $15.6 billion has widened its lead over New Jersey ($11.9 billion) for the No. 2 spot, driven partly by the state's aggressive market expansion and partly by New Jersey's relative maturity.
• Ohio ($10.2 billion) and Arizona ($9.2 billion) round out the top five. Both states have benefited from broad mobile access and large, sports-hungry populations.
• Oregon ($936 million) and New Hampshire ($904 million), where DraftKings holds a sportsbook monopoly in each, have both approached but fallen short of $1 billion annual handle.

Mississippi regulators and lawmakers have flirted with authorizing online sports betting repeatedly, most recently in January 2026, but it remains a casino-only state. If and when Texas and California join the regulated ranks (Las Vegas Sands is spending heavily to make it happen in Texas), the top of this chart will get interesting.

4. Gross revenue by state, LTM (May 2025 through April 2026)

Key Insights:

• Operators collectively grossed $2.60 billion in New York over the LTM, but they also paid a $25 million up-front licensing fee and face a nation-leading 51% tax on GGR (tied with Rhode Island, and matched by Illinois and Vermont at the top brackets).
• Do not conflate gross revenue with net revenue or net profit. These are top-line figures before taxes, operating costs, and interest payments.
• North Carolina, which launched its online market in March 2024, has climbed past Michigan and into the top 10 with $798 million in GGR. Impressive for a market that's just two years old.
• Ohio cracked $1 billion in GGR ($1.075 billion), making it one of only four states to clear that threshold alongside New York, Illinois, and New Jersey.
• Illinois at $1.45 billion continues to be one of the most lucrative states, but the tax environment has turned hostile. More on that below.

Illinois taxation.
In June 2024, Gov. JB Pritzker signed a progressive tax scheme ranging from 20% to 40% of adjusted gross sports wagering receipts. Then in June 2025, the legislature added a per-wager tax: 25 cents on an operator's first 20 million bets, 50 cents above that. FanDuel responded on June 10 with a 50-cent transaction fee on all Illinois wagers, effective September 1. Most other Illinois sportsbooks followed with per-bet fees or minimum bet requirements ($1 to $2). In the first three months, Illinois' per-bet tax generated over $21 million in additional revenue, nearly $16.5 million of it from FanDuel and DraftKings alone. But total bets placed dropped by more than five million year-over-year in September 2025.

The 40% rate hits only DraftKings and FanDuel, which was the intent. Other operators, barring a revenue surge, won't reach the thresholds for higher brackets.

It got worse. In June 2025, the legislature passed a budget bill containing an additional per-wager tax: 25 cents for an operator's first 20 million wagers, 50 cents for wagers above that. On June 10, FanDuel announced a 50-cent transaction fee on all Illinois wagers in response, effective September 1, saying it would drop the fee if lawmakers killed the per-bet tax. Most other Illinois sportsbooks followed with their own per-bet fees or minimum bet amounts of $1 to $2.

5. Tax revenue by state, LTM (May 2025 through April 2026)

Key Insights:

• New York collected $1.33 billion in sports betting tax revenue over the LTM, a staggering haul that exceeds what most states generate from their entire gaming sectors.
• Illinois has jumped to second at $568 million, and the full impact of its new per-bet tax won't be reflected until a full 12-month cycle is available. The gap with New York will narrow further throughout 2026.
• New Jersey sits third at $285 million, well ahead of Pennsylvania ($243 million) and Ohio ($217 million). Jersey's recent rate hike from 13% to 19.75% is the driver.
• Ohio doubled its rate from 10% to 20% in June 2023, which is why it sits at $217 million instead of roughly half that. Lawmakers contemplated raising it again but backed off.
• Pennsylvania's 36% rate, established at legalization, has generated $243 million over the LTM. Super Bowl LIX, in which the Eagles routed the Chiefs, was not a great outcome for the house in PA.

Tax rate changes in 2025.
Illinois' shift to a progressive structure inspired a wave of increases across the country. Here's where things landed:

• New Jersey: Rate increased from 13% (sports) and 15% (iGaming) to 19.75% for both. Gov. Murphy had pushed for 25%.
• Maryland: Rate rose from 15% to 20% under Gov. Moore's budget. He'd initially sought 32%.
• Louisiana: Gov. Landry signed a hike from 15% to 21.5%, effective August 1, 2025. Revenue funds a new college athletics (SPORT) fund.
• North Carolina: The Senate proposed doubling the rate from 18% to 36%, but the final budget passed without the increase. Rate remains 18%. Could resurface in 2026.
• Indiana and Ohio considered similar proposals. Ohio's was dropped from budget negotiations.
• Pennsylvania explored changes in November 2025 but backed off.

2024 background for posterity: DraftKings, during its Q3 2024 earnings, floated a plan to pass Illinois' elevated tax back to bettors as a surcharge on winning bets. The reaction was brutal. FanDuel (Flutter) said during its own earnings call two weeks later that it absolutely would not follow DraftKings' lead. DraftKings abandoned the idea, though CEO Jason Robins has said the company will consider any and all ideas to protect margins.

6. Parlay hold % versus non-parlay hold (March 2022 to present)

Key Insights:

• Month-to-month volatility is significant, but the long-term trend for hold percentage at U.S. sportsbooks points upward. Multiple forces are at work: growing customer adoption of Same Game Parlays (SGPs), improvements in operator pricing algorithms, and aggressive product emphasis on higher-margin offerings.
• This chart reflects betting activity in New Jersey, Colorado, Illinois, and Maryland only, though it's a strong and representative sample given the overall volume in those states. Granular bet-type data reporting is better in some states than others.
• The parlay hold peaked at roughly 26% in November 2021 and again near 24% in mid-2023 and mid-2025, with sharp reversals each time. As of the latest data, parlay hold is at 19.9%, total hold at 10.5%, and non-parlay hold at 6.0%.
• All three lines have moved up meaningfully from earlier this year. The total hold at 10.5% is consistent with the quarterly and annual hold data shown below, confirming the structural upward shift isn't just seasonal noise.
• Parlay and non-parlay hold percentages are generally correlated. When one rises or falls, the other tends to follow.

7. Parlay revenue as a % of total revenue (March 2022 to present)

Key Insights:

• This line spiked near an all-time high at 69% in November 2025 and again in December, after a dip earlier in the football season. The latest reading sits at approximately 61%, right in line with the long-term trend.
• The chalk-heavy NCAA tournament in March 2025 knocked parlay revenue below 50% of total operator revenue (47%), something that had only happened three other times since January 2023. It bounced back quickly.
• The trendline across the full four-year period is unmistakable. Parlays have gone from generating roughly half of operator revenue to routinely clearing 60%, with occasional surges near 70%.
• How high can this go? Probably limited only by product ingenuity on the operator side, tempered by the risk of burning out bankrolls too fast.

8. Parlay handle as % of total handle (March 2022 to present)

Key Insights:

• The record set in January 2026 still stands: parlays hit 35.1% of overall handle that month. The latest reading has settled back to approximately 32%, still well above the trend line.
• Over four years, this figure has grown from about 20% of handle to routinely exceeding 30%. The trendline points clearly upward.
• The ceiling isn't limitless. As long as VIPs continue placing large straight wagers on football and basketball spreads and totals, non-parlay volume will remain significant. But recreational bettors, who are the market's growth engine, skew heavily toward parlays.

9. National quarterly hold percentage (Q1 2021 to QTD 2026)

Key Insights:

• Q1 2026 finalized at 9.8%, solidly in the mid-to-high range established since Q3 2022.
• Q2 2026 (quarter-to-date) is tracking at 11.2%, a new all-time high in our data. That surpasses the previous record of 10.9% set in Q2 2025. Whether it holds through June depends on how the NBA Playoffs and early MLB season break for the house, but 11% would be a new benchmark.
• Q4 2025 hit 10.8%, a big finish. Compare that to Q4 2024's 7.9%, which was dragged down by "customer-friendly" NFL results, meaning lots of favorites covering. Booking sports can be volatile, even in the era of parlays.
• The quarterly hold has now hit or exceeded 10% five times on a finalized basis: Q3 2022 (10.0%), Q2 2024 (10.0%), Q3 2024 (10.5%), Q2 2025 (10.9%), and Q4 2025 (10.8%). QTD Q2 2026 at 11.2% will very likely make it six. If you're betting on where this number trends, the over on 10% for future quarters looks right.
• For perspective: pre-PASPA, when Nevada was the primary regulated market and parlays got far less emphasis, the national hold lived closer to 5%. The structural shift is real and probably permanent.

10. National annual hold percentage (2018 to YTD 2026)

Key Insights:

• 2025 was the first calendar year in which the national hold exceeded 10%. That's a milestone worth pausing on. The full-year print of 10.1% means operators kept more than a dime of every dollar wagered across the entire regulated market, on average, for 12 straight months.
• YTD 2026 is tracking at 10.1% as well, suggesting this isn't a one-year anomaly. The floor has moved.
• The annual view smooths out the quarterly noise and makes the long-term arc unmistakable: from 7.2% in 2020 (the trough, driven partly by COVID-era dynamics and a thinner parlay mix) to 10.1% today, a nearly 3-percentage-point climb in five years.
• The 2018 reading of 8.8% is an outlier in the other direction. With only a handful of states live and Nevada dominating the sample, that number reflects a different market entirely. The post-2020 trajectory is the one that matters for projecting forward.
• For bettors, the implication is stark: the house edge is structurally higher than it was when legal sports betting launched. Parlays, SGPs, and improved pricing algorithms have made the recreational bettor's dollar go shorter. We couldn't confirm whether any operator has publicly acknowledged this trend as a long-term strategic objective, but the data doesn't leave much room for alternative explanations.

What's next

Visit our companion database for U.S. Online Casino Data: Market Share By Brand, Gross Gaming Revenue Stats, and Taxation.

Selected data sources

• Illinois Gaming Board
• Michigan Gaming Control Board
• New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement
• New York State Gaming Commission
• Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board

Source: State filings. Charts and estimates by @astraffon. Monthly shares subject to revision as states report.