DES MOINES, Iowa — The total amount spent on sports bets in Iowa in the past seven months has already surpassed all bets placed during the 12 months before, according to state leaders.
From July 2020 to June 2021, Iowans placed around $1.2 billion dollars worth of bets. Meanwhile, from July 2021 through January 2022, that number was more than $1.5 billion.
Brian Ohorilko, the administrator for the Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission, said a lot of that increase is due to Iowans no longer needing to register in-person to play online. Companies have also been competing heavily to get consumers to sign up for their apps with special deals for new users.
Ohorilko said Iowans are set to make more bets before things slow down.
"Things have really taken off during football season—sports betting is very seasonal activity," Ohorilko said. "It's reasonable to expect that we'll continue to see strong numbers in February and then as we head into March Madness... before things are really slow down into the summer."
As for the impact of sports betting on casinos, Ohorilko said it's still a drop in the bucket compared to their overall portfolios. Nationwide, casinos reporting their highest-winning year on record in 2021.
The state gets a chunk of sports betting revenue in taxes, which are also on track to surpass last year's numbers.
Ohorilko said there were no formal projections for how well sports betting would perform in the state, but the jump from 2020 to 2021 were unexpected.
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