Thanks to March Madness, sports betting handle bounced back in a big way in Indiana during the month of March.
The Indiana Gaming Commission reported the gambling stats from March earlier this month. According to the report the sports betting handle in the state for March was $476.8 million. That was up 16.5 percent from the handle reported in February, and nearly reached the record handle of $500.1 million set earlier this year in January.
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The sports betting revenue reported in March was $32.3 million, which was nearly double the $17 million in revenue reported in February. That $32.3 million in revenue resulted in a $3.1 million bill for the tax man.
Not surprisingly with March Madness in full swing basketball betting led the way in Indiana during March. Indiana residents bet $274 million on basketball during the month. The second most popular bet was parlays, which accounted for $121.3 million in bets.
Baseball betting usually starts to ramp up in March, but the lockout delayed the start of the season and as a result only $1.5 million was bet on baseball during the month.
Another non-surprise was online betting continuing to dominate the sports betting handle in March. There are 14 online sportsbooks in the state and they accounted for 92.5 percent of the March betting handle.
The most popular sportsbooks in the state were FanDuel Sportsbook and DraftKings Sportsbook. Combined they accounted for more than 60 percent of all online sports betting handle in the month. FanDuel led the way with $143.2 million in sports betting handle and $12.1 million in revenue. DraftKings was close behind with $139.5 million in revenue and $6.9 million in revenue.
The only other sportsbooks in the state to crack to 10 percent mark on betting handle were BetMGM Sportsbook with 12.8 percent for $56.1 million, and Caesars Sportsbook with 12.5 percent for $54.8 million.