A recent meeting of the Illinois Gaming Board granted a four-year master sports betting license to DraftKings to offer wagering at its sportsbook located at Wrigley Field.
Great Catch for DraftKings
Wrigley Field, one of the oldest and most venerated sports venues in America, is an ideal location to run a sportsbook, and DraftKings has had the good fortune of partnering with the Chicago Cubs to make that dream a reality.
During the announcement of the pending sportsbook at the iconic Wrigley Field, DraftKings CEO, Jason Robins, said, “We are thrilled to celebrate the latest milestone in our collaborative efforts with the Chicago Cubs to bring a world-class entertainment experience for customers to iconic Wrigley Field.”
Although the 22,000-square-foot sports bar/restaurant opened in June of last year for food and beverage service only, the sportsbook just recently received regulatory approval in March to begin taking bets. But until this most recent approval, the Boston-based bookmaker was working with a temporary license.
The Illinois Gaming Commission notified DraftKings subsidiary, Northside Crown Gaming, that its temporary license had been replaced with a four-year permanent license for sports betting at the Wrigley location. That license and one issued to another DraftKings subsidiary, Crown IL Gaming, for a full mobile license at Casino Queen in East St. Louis, Illinois were ratified at a meeting of the Illinois Gaming Commission earlier this month.
Fertile Market
Sports betting in Illinois has been highly lucrative with monthly handles that routinely eclipse the billion-dollar mark. February, a rather slow sports betting month except for the Super Bowl, revealed that the mobile sportsbooks reported a combined handle of nearly $1.07 billion which was the 10th straight month in which the billion-dollar threshold was breached.
The total handle was up 22.3% from February 2023 while the adjusted gross revenues also increased over 22% from the previous year to $83.5 million, more evidence that the mobile sports betting market in the Land of Lincoln continues to thrive. Revenue reported from brick-and-mortar locations equaled only $1.5 million in February.
The state’s tax coffers also swelled by $12.5 million while Cook County profited $921,855 from taxes levied on Chicago-area sports betting within its jurisdiction. We should also note that mobile sports betting dwarfed retail in February, taking in $1.04 billion while the latter did just $29.4 million in accepted wagers which means over 97% of the wagers were placed digitally.
Market Leaders
DraftKings led all challengers in February with a handle of $389.4 million but its $31.4 million in revenue was slightly shy of FanDuel’s $31.8 million despite FanDuel’s handle being approximately $19 million less than DraftKings. A higher hold, or win rate, is the reason why FanDuel came out with a slightly better adjusted gross revenue.
The top 6 major players in the Illinois market posted the following handles in February:
