The Nevada Gaming Control Board reported $36 million in sports betting revenue for May on Thursday, a notable year-over-year increase while handle went in the opposite direction.

Operator winnings were up 19.8% from May 2023, notably outpacing the 2.3% decline in handle. The hold, which was just shy of the 7% industry standard, was 1.3 percentage points higher than last year. Revenue was also 17% higher than the $30.8 million claimed in April, with handle down 9.4% from the previous month’s $569.2 million worth of wagers accepted.

The state collected $2.4 million in tax receipts from sports betting revenue in May, and the $14.1 million inflow into state coffers for the calendar year is $755,000 ahead of the pace from the first five months of 2023.

1 New York $1.98B
2 New Jersey $838.9M
3 Penn. $591.9M
4 Mass. $587.3M
5 North Carolina $525.5M
6 NEVADA $514.4M
7 Maryland $431.5M
8 Tennessee $379.2M
9 Indiana $361.6M
10 Michigan $354.8M#SportsBettingX #GamblingX

— Chris Altruda (@AlTruda73) June 27, 2024

There was much ado about April’s handle because neighboring Arizona finished above the Silver State for the first time in 32 months since launching commercial sports betting in late 2021 en route to ranking ninth nationally.

Nevada is already assured of finishing no better than sixth nationally for May, and this time it may be clinging to a top-10 status: Massachusetts generated a higher handle for the month, and Arizona, Illinois, Ohio, and Virginia have yet to publish figures.

The common thread among all those states is the extensive wagering via sports betting apps compared to Nevada, which still requires in-person registration to gain access to mobile betting. That is part of the Silver State business model, which focuses more on brick-and-mortar casino gambling with Las Vegas and Reno as tourist destinations.

Those other five states had mobile handle represent at least 97% of their total wagering in April, while 68.5% of Nevada’s handle was digitally sourced. It remained relatively flat in May at 68.2%, with the $351.4 million worth of wagers placed online down 1.9% from May 2023.

Sportsbooks paid out $3.4 million above the $1.6 million worth of football wagers accepted for May, with losses common this type of year as bettors are still cashing winning Super Bowl tickets among other football bets. Operators have paid out $22 million above handle over the last three months, $144,000 more than the same period last year.

The house, though, fared well when it came to basketball. It claimed $17.2 million in winnings thanks to a 9.3% hold — the highest monthly win rate since reaching 10.2% in June 2021 — from $183.8 million in handle. Revenue from basketball wagering was up 43.7% compared to May 2023, an increase of $5.2 million.

Revenue from baseball totaled $11.2 million, a decline of 32.3% from last year as the 5.5% hold was 1.7 percentage points lower and the $204.3 million worth of wagers was down 11.2% from 12 months prior.

The catch-all “other” category, which includes golf, tennis, soccer, boxing, and MMA in Nevada, provided $7.8 million in operator winnings with a 9.3% hold from $83.1 million worth of bets placed.

Operators collected $3.4 million from hockey bets as the hold was just shy of 8% against $42.5 million in handle. The public eked out a small profit from parlays, coming out $15,000 ahead from $23,851 wagered.

Parlays are far less common in Nevada than elsewhere in the U.S. — the year-to-date handle of $2.7 million is down 45% from 2023, though that action will pick up to an extent during the NFL season.

Though mobile betting still accounts for barely two-thirds of total handle, mobile operators perform at a much better clip in 2024 than past years. The 6.6% hold for May that generated $23 million in revenue marked the first time the online win rate was above 6% in back-to-back months since a three-month run from November 2020 to January 2021.

Mobile sportsbooks have eclipsed a 5% hold in all five months of 2024, and the 5.8% hold thus far in 2024 is 1.6 percentage points higher than the first five months of 2023. The $127.4 million in mobile sportsbook revenue is up 32.9% year-over-year despite a 3.8% decline in handle to $2.18 billion.