In our latest sportsbook pay per head blog update on US sports betting, we are taking a look at Illinois. Recently, a sports betting law was up for extension, and based on the voting results, the Illinois online sports betting law still prohibits college sports betting.

Currently, online betting on Tier 1 Illinois teams is not legal in the state. The law is up to expire this coming July 1, so the Senate has to vote to extend the law up until July 1, 2024. Tier 1 sports bets are those wagers on schools like the University of Illinois, Illinois State, Northwestern and more.

Bettors in the state can still wager on these teams, however, they will have to go to retail or brick-and-mortar sportsbooks. Furthermore, betting is limited to pre-game betting on moneylines, spreads and totals only.

Illinois Online Sports Betting Law Still Prohibits College Sports Betting- At What Cost?

Of course, many in the Price Per Head Sportsbook business know just how profitable college sports betting is. Leaving out such a large number of sports events in online sportsbooks definitely affects the earning potential of sportsbook owners and operators. For instance, sportsbooks in the state have a betting handle of $1.07 billion this March. March is a particularly popular month for college sports betting.

Retail betting took in $97.1 million in March from March Madness betting. But retail betting only accounts for 3% of the total sports betting handle for March. So if you add college sports betting in your sports betting software, given those percentages, then the handle would have been higher. In 2022 alone, college sports betting contributes over a billion dollars in handle.

Some legislators know this, and would want for the state to earn more from potential revenue for online college sports wagering. Especially in a state with a lot of good college sports teams. Rep. Jonathan Carroll filed HB 4041, which aims to remove the language in the current law that says that sportsbooks cannot take a wager on a sports event involving an Illinois college team if the bet is a Tier 1 wager, and if the wager is not related to an individual athlete’s performance. Hopefully, the bill will gain traction in the House, and in the future, with the Senate and the office of the Governor as well.

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