US SPORTS BETTING IN 2023
Fig 11 : Hold margin of parlay vs single bets (%)
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Parlay bets can lead to significantly higher winnings for customers as the winnings from the first bet are effectively used as the handle amount for the second bet and so on . Therefore they are attractive in terms of potential
Singles (%) Parlays (%) Total (%) Source : State Gaming Boards , H2 Gambling Capital , January 2023
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Fig 12 : Oregon data : rolling three-month share of in-play handle and gross win (%)
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Rolling three-month in-play handle (%) Rolling three-month in-play gross win (%)
Source : Oregon Lottery , January 2023
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Dec-21 winnings versus initial stake . However , they are also more profitable for operators , having a higher hold margin .
Over the past year , parlays have accounted for c . 15 % of US sports betting handle , but given the higher hold margin , they have accounted for c . 37 % of operator gross win ( see Fig 10 ).
The average hold margin of a parlay bet over the past year is 20 % ( meaning that an operator will on average keep 20 % of all parlay wagers ) compared to just 5.7 % for single bets . Given the relative proportion of single vs parlay wagers , this has led to an overall merged hold margin of c . 7.7 % over this period ( see Fig 11 ).
Oregon has split out data between pre-match bets and in-play bets ( wagers made after an event has started ).
LOW HOLD MARGIN FOR LIVE BETTING
In Europe , in-play is an incredibly popular product , accounting for well over 50 % of all betting activity . In the US , according to data from Oregon , in-play accounted for just under 50 % of total handle in 2021 , and c . 44 % of gross win .
The lower gross win percentage is due to the generally lower hold margin for in-play betting , which itself is partly due to the fact that the majority of in-play bets are singles , compared to pre-match bets which are often parlays .
In Oregon , the average in-play hold margin in 2021 was 7.9 % compared to an average pre-match margin of 10.6 %, and overall hold margin of 9.3 %. This is higher than the 7.7 % referenced when comparing parlays vs single bets as the hold margin in Oregon is generally higher than elsewhere . This is because there is a monopoly online operator in the state and therefore it does not need to use pricing as a competition mechanism ( see Fig 12 ).
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