Nevada Sportsbooks Struggle in July

The Nevada Gaming Control Board released figures for July. And it wasn’t pretty for the state’s sportsbooks. Handle dropped to $218 million, down roughly $3 million from the previous year. After some futures bets in basketball were paid off, sportsbooks showed a profit of $500,000. That keeps their string of winning months going. But just barely. The last time the sportsbooks had a losing month was in 2013.

While July was a poor month for the sportsbooks that isn’t the case for August. The Mayweather fight will show between $60 and $100 million wagered. And the result was what the sportsbook were hoping for. Several made seven figures on the fight. The Nevada Gaming Control Board said the handle should exceed $60 million. But the Westgate’s Jay Kornegay believes it could have passed the $100 million mark. In the history of Nevada sports betting, only the past four Super Bowls have exceeded $100 million in handle. That’s how big the fight was in terms of betting.

Kornegay is using his sportsbook as an example. The Mayweather vs. Manny Pacquiao fight was the previous record holder at $50 million. And Kornegay said the Westgate took twice as much action on the Mayweather bout. Nobody knows if that was universal at other sportsbooks. But it could be pretty close.

August is also the start of football season and the college games have been going on for close to a week now. Things really pick up this weekend. But there are games Thursday and Friday, as well. For an opening weekend there are some pretty big games. Such as Florida vs. Michigan and Florida State vs. Alabama. But there are also a fair number of weaker games on the slate as well, with strong teams playing weak opponents. Clemson and Auburn are good examples. But it’s all part of the best time of the year for Nevada sportsbooks who couldn’t be any happier than to see weekend football here again.