The Illinois Gaming Board reported on Thursday $160.5 million in adjusted gross sports betting revenue for December as mobile wagering activity continues to sorely lag behind last year in large part due to the wagering surcharge tax.
The 28.65 million bets placed during the final month of the year was down 24.8% compared to 2024. Excluding the 1.75 million wagers placed through bet365, which launched in March, that percentage increases to 29.2%. Operators have used either surcharges or minimum wager amounts as a means to counteract the state tax that took effect in July to varying effects.
Operators paid nearly $12.4 million in surcharge taxes in December, lifting the total for the first six months of the fiscal year to $62.2 million. The budget that Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker signed into law in June that included the wager surcharge estimated $40 million in receipts for the entire 2025-26 fiscal year.
Despite the sharp downturn in wagers, the 3.4% decline in year-over-year handle to $1.44 billion is in line with nationwide trends for the month. It also did not stop operators from hammering the public for a second straight month. The statewide hold was 10.6%, resulting in $152.7 million in gross winnings prior to adjustments sending the taxable amount higher. Both gross and adjusted revenue surged more than 50% higher compared to December 2024.
The state received $69 million in tax receipts from both the surcharge and operator revenue, and the $291.7 million in total revenue remitted to the state is $118.7 million more than the first six months of FY 2024-25. Operator remittance based on revenue is running $56.5 million higher than last year.
Is it time to sound the alarm?
After steady declines of roughly 15% in wagering volume in September, October, and November, the falloff to cap 2025 was steep. Seven of nine mobile operators had double-digit, year-over-year percentage declines in December wagering volume, with only Circa Sports and Fanatics bucking the trend.
Circa’s wagers ticked 5.8% higher to 36,826, while the more traditional Fanatics reported a 3.9% bump to more than 1.5 million. BetRivers had the sharpest decline in terms of percentage at 42.9%, going from 1.2 million to 712,900. FanDuel’s wagers fell off by more than one-third to nearly 11 million, and DraftKings was 31,700 shy of 10 million, a drop of 30.2%.
As a high-limit, low-hold sportsbook, the wagering surcharge has notably impacted Circa. The Las Vegas-based outfit’s $55,456 in remittance for the past six months is nearly 10% of its $563,859 in revenue. The result is an effective tax rate of 29.9% as opposed to the 20% base rate.
Fanatics continues to trend toward paying the higher 50-cent per wager surcharge before the end of the fiscal year, having accepted 10.8 million bets the last six months. It is currently remitting 30% on revenue, having reached the third state threshold of $50 million; Fanatics’ effective tax rate has gone from 23.4% to 27.9%.
And then there are the titans
The progressive tax rates and wager surcharges continue to have outsized effects on FanDuel and DraftKings compared to the other eight mobile sportsbooks. Both are paying the maximum 40% tax on revenue and absorbing the higher 50-cent surcharge per wager the remainder of the fiscal year.
The two colossuses accounted for 85% of the total wagering surcharge in December with FanDuel paying $5.5 million and DraftKings nearly $5 million. That maintained the status quo in terms of the total amount: They have paid $51.2 million in wagering surcharges, which is 82.3% of all receipts generated.
The surcharge has moved FanDuel’s average tax rate of 33.1% from progressing through revenue benchmarks to an effective 43% rate, having remitted $118.7 million in total receipts. The $108.3 million submitted by DraftKings is an effective tax rate of 41.9% versus the 32.7% from solely revenue. Tack on the 2% Cook County levy for revenue generated in the state’s largest county, and the effective tax rates increase to 45% and 43.9%, respectively.
The City of Chicago has yet to disclose collection totals from its 10.25% tax on city-based revenue enacted Jan. 1, but that levy means FanDuel and DraftKings are paying an effective tax rate on Chicago-based winnings above the 51% they both remit on mobile revenue in New York.
Parlays (again) save the day
Perhaps one reason for the relatively muted grousing (save from the Sports Betting Alliance) is the sportsbooks are continuing to generate year-over-year revenue growth beyond paying the wagering surcharge. The $1.48 billion in AGR for the 2025 calendar year was up 21.6% compared to 2024, and the $762.8 million for the first six months of this fiscal year represents a 25.3% increase.
The calendar-year handle bump of 11.6% is outpacing the current fiscal year increase of 8%, which means operator performance is impacting the bottom line and the tax coffers. It also means parlay revenue — a key source of sportsbook revenue — continues to track at higher levels in Illinois.
The house closed out 2025 with $100.8 million in winnings from the multi-leg bets, crafting a 21.9% hold on $460.6 million worth of wagers. Seven of the nine mobile operators conducting wagering in December 2024 posted parlay win rates 10 percentage points or better this time.
The list starts with FanDuel, who had a 26.5% win rate to claim $41.4 million in revenue. Despite a 25.2% downturn in parlay handle, revenue soared 47.2% higher. DraftKings fell short of a 20% hold, landing at 19.6%, but the $33.1 million in winnings was 156.7% higher than December 2024.
Fanatics took the final podium spot for parlay revenue at $7.1 million, notching a 19.2% win rate to go with an 85.3% bounce in year-over-year winnings. BetMGM ($3.1 million), Caesars ($2.5 million), theScore ($2.1 million), and Hard Rock Bet ($2.1 million) all more than doubled their parlay winnings compared to the final month of 2024.
BetRivers, which came $5,700 shy of $3 million, reported a 52.6% increase and a 19.8% hold. Circa paid out $31,279 above its $737,807 in accepted parlay bets, but that was also an improvement from 2024 when bettors pocketed $66,578 above the $761,653 wagered on the multi-leg bets.
The $889.9 million in total parlay revenue was up 26.1% compared to 2024, and outpaced the 19.1% increase in handle to $4.86 billion. The collective 18.3% hold for 2025, which included seven months at 20% or higher, was up one full percentage point.
