Nevada casino sportsbooks crushed their previous record for Super Bowl betting handle, but their net win was the lowest in ten years.
On Monday, the Nevada Gaming Control Board revealed that state-licensed sportsbooks handled $158.6m in Super Bowl wagers, over $20m higher than last year’s then-record $138.5m. The books have set handle records in four of the last five years and have topped $100m in wagers every year since 2014.
However, the books held a mere 0.7% of bettors’ wagers, which translates to a lowly $1.17m in net win. Last year’s hold was 7.9%, which resulted in a $10.9m win. Still, it’s preferable to losing $2.5m, which the books did in 2008, the last year the books come out on the wrong side of that equation.
The books got pummeled by a majority of bettors believing that the final score would exceed 48 points, and in taking the underdog Eagles to win straight up. There were five bets of at least $1m, four of which were on the Eagles, including a $3m money line wager placed with the MGM Grand late last month.