How Indiana has become one of the biggest sports betting states

Indiana is steadily rising among the biggest sports betting states in the US. In 2020, the state shattered records by making $1.7 billion from a number of different sports related betting wagers. The year before, sports gambling had only just been legalized. With such a massive profit in only a year’s time, Indiana can only go up the state rankings with respect to sports betting. To better appreciate the level of growth Indiana’s sports betting market has undergone, here’s the full story as to how the state became one of the country’s sports betting breadwinners.

The Hoosier State kicked off its first full year of legalized sports gambling with a slam dunk: a record-breaking $187 million handle in February thanks to basketball. Although this was a very impressive achievement, the follow-up was not quite as profitable. The state only made $167 million in the following four months combined. Not the most promising start, but it was also par for the course. Not many expected the earnings to be too high, especially when America’s most loved sport, football, hadn’t yet touched down for the year.

Football is easily the most popular sport in the United States, so naturally it would be the most popular sport to bet on in the United States as well. Although betting numbers had dwindled somewhat over the summer, the start of the football season and the kickoff of the NFL in September more than made up for it. By the end of 2020, Hoosiers had hauled in over $100 million from football bets alone. No matter what sport you’re looking at, according to gamble Indiana, there is a growing list of mobile betting operators that you can look at to get your gambling fix.

Although $1.7 billion in their first year of sports betting is no small feat, just keep in mind that the number could have been much higher had the COVID pandemic not existed. 2020 was the height of the coronavirus, and the absolute low of sports centers everywhere. With all the sports venues shut down, naturally no one would be betting, and that of course caused the entire sports gambling market to plummet. June’s measly $29 million, the lowest of the entire year, was a result of that. The final tally by the end of 2020 was over a billion, but under different circumstances, it easily could have broken over two billion. From here on out, projected earnings from the Hoosier State can only increase, not decrease

Part of the distinction as one of the biggest sports betting states simply comes from the fact that few states in the United States have actually legalized most forms of sports betting. It wasn’t until recently that sports betting was a matter that state governments could handle broadly on their own. Since then, sports betting has only been fully legalized in eighteen states, most of which were already big gambling hot spots, like New Jersey. Even though Indiana lags heavy weights like Nevada which have allowed some form of sports betting for some decades now, Indiana has a massive head start over the other roughly thirty states that have made zero progress on the matter.

As sports betting gets traction throughout the United States, it’s no doubt that it will become more and more widespread. In the meantime, Indiana has capitalized on their early mover advantage, quickly becoming one of the biggest sports betting states, even in spite of the decade’s long history some of their competitors, such as Nevada, have in the space.

Rupali Gupta

Rupali Gupta is a blogger and professional writer who loves to write about technology and entertainment. Techzimo is one of her successful websites filled with great tech news, Know more about her on Youtube Facebook Twitter Linkedin Instagram