The American sports betting industry posted a record $13.71 billion in 2024 revenue, up from 2023’s record of $11.04 billion, according to the American Gaming Association’s annual report issued Wednesday.
The AGA, during its state of the industry call, said legal sportsbooks took nearly $150 billion worth of bets, a 22.2% increase from 2023. Sportsbooks won at a 9.3% rate nationally, a slight increase from 2023’s 9.1% hold percentage.
The AGA also reported that Q4 2024 was the industry’s most lucrative quarter on record at $3.66 billion — a 7.3% increase from the previous quarterly record set in Q4 2023. This was despite NFL favorites, who are generally more backed by the betting public, winning at historic rates during the 2024 season.
The industry is evolving even as more states continue to legalize sports betting and it becomes normalized nationwide.
“Last year saw brick-and-mortar revenue growth slow, while online gaming and sports betting continued to grow,” AGA vice president of research David Forman said during the call. “These past few years have reshaped the industry, and the revenue pie, while it’s much bigger, looks very different than it used to. That’s increasingly driven by new online gaming options available to more people than ever before.”
Forman said 30% of all commercial gaming revenue came from digital sources in 2024, compared to 25% in 2023 and 13% in 2021.
As of February 2025, 38 states and Washington, D.C., have legalized sports betting in some form, though only 24 jurisdictions have full online sports betting with multiple operators. North Carolina and Vermont fall into the latter category and were contributors to the record revenue in their first year of operation.
New York retained its position as the largest sports betting market in the country, generating $2.1 billion in revenue for 2024. Illinois surpassed New Jersey to become the second-largest market, but both states exceeded $1 billion in annual sports betting revenue for the first time.
“A lot of the growth really was driven by existing markets. Even markets that have been online for some time now, we saw really good growth,” Forman told ESPN on a follow-up call, pointing to Massachusetts (40% revenue growth) and Maryland (23%) as key examples. “So really it’s getting new people into the ecosystem and then continuing to engage with folks that are already betting on sports.”
The sports betting industry is set to add potentially only one new state in 2025: Missouri legalized sports betting via a ballot initiative in November, and the state is expected to launch by mid- to late-summer.