Vegas Sports Books Have Poor Start To NFL SeasonWeek 1 Has Historically Been Great For Casinos, But Not This Year |
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The first week of the 2015-2016 NFL season was not a good one for Nevada’s sports books, as one sports book manager told ESPN that he couldn’t “remember a worse opening Sunday.”
Favorites went 9-4 against the spread Sunday.
Many other sports books had losing Sundays during week one, which is unusual for the only U.S. state with full-scale sports betting. Delaware is the only other state with some betting on sports.
Nevada saw $3.9 billion in sports wagers last year, which was an all-time high, according to research from the University of Nevada Las Vegas. It was an increase of 7.7 percent over 2013.
Bets on football totaled $1.75 billion.
The $227 million won from all wagers represented 2.06 percent of overall Nevada gaming win in 2014. It was the first time that sports betting crossed the two-percent mark. Nevada sports books won 6.5 percent of the money bet on football, the best win percentage for the sport since 2006.
Since 1992, the average casino win percentage on football is 4.63 percent.
There were 190 sports betting locations in Nevada last year, up from 186 in 2013 and the most ever for the Silver State.
The amount won from bets on football ($113.7 million) was roughly 50 percent of overall sports betting win last year. Basketball was the next largest with $54.24 million. Last year was the first time in 20 years that football represented more than half of the total sports betting win.
Though the amount bet on football in Nevada may seem like a lot, it’s actually far less than the $3.8 billion that the American Gaming Association said was illegally bet on the Super Bowl alone.
Thanks to an increase in demand for sports betting, the state of New Jersey has been trying to put the activity in its Atlantic City casinos. The major sports leagues have fought against that vigorously, with the latest ruling in their favor coming last month.
Though some consider it gambling and some don’t, daily fantasy sports have become an attractive industry for some of the largest entertainment and gaming companies in the U.S. It has been estimated that the DFS market could reach $2.5 billion by 2020, which has caused the state of California to consider regulating it. Nevada has also began studying the fledgling industry.
Legal sports betting across the globe is worth more than $100 billion annually, according to research from Morgan Stanley. However, the vast majority is bet through illegal channels.
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