Despite the fact that more than 96% of sports betting apps, sometimes wagering can truly be about the old real estate axiom of “Location, location, location.”
And a little bit of good timing.
college basketball, which then feeds into the NCAA Tournament. Selection Sunday is six days away — on St. Patrick’s Day no less — which brings its own version of March Madness on the north side of Chicago even before the First Four tips off March 19.
What makes the long-awaited opening of the DraftKings Sportsbook at Wrigley Field compelling is that it gives Chicago bettors a second option to place wagers for college basketball games involving Illinois schools — most notably the Illini, Northwestern, and fellow NCAA Tournament hopeful Loyola of Chicago — besides Rivers Casino in Des Plaines.
Revisiting the compromise 1zl3c
When Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker signed the Sports Wagering Act into law in June 2019 to legalize sports betting, there was a banning of wagers on Illinois schools. There are plenty of opportunities for wagering on in-state schools with 12 Division I teams over the course of college football and college basketball seasons, but those opportunities largely dry up come March for the latter.
The grousing about the inability to wager on these games hit a crescendo in March 2021 when Illinois faced Loyola of Chicago in the second round of the NCAA Tournament. The ban on betting for that game sent some bettors scrambling over the Chicago Skyway Toll Bridge to Indiana to make wagers on that contest, needing only to cross the state line as the Hoosier State has remote registration.
The frustration was loud enough that then-State Rep. Mike Zalewski authored an amendment that would allow betting on in-state schools — but only in-person at sportsbooks and only for “Tier 1” wagers, which are pre-game bets involving the moneyline, point spread, and totals.
That amendment ed as part of HB 3136 last May via Senate Bill 0089 by the current General Assembly since Zalewski’s amendment was scheduled to sunset July 1 and remain the status quo.
Former Rep. Jonathan Carroll introduced a bill that would remove the in-state carveout for both retail and mobile betting last April, but he resigned in January, and there has been no movement on the bill in Springfield since it was referred to the Rules Committee upon filing. Zalewski lost his seat in state legislature via election in 2022, leaving Rep. Bob Rita to shoulder most of the load when it comes to gaming legislature in Illinois.
Checking the numbers 1k4x6v
Tier 1 retail handle for college sports — Illinois Gaming Board figures do not break out handle by sport for Tier 1 and Tier 2 wagers — totaled $9.7 million in March 2023, down 18.4% from March 2022. The volume of wagers dropped 1% to 68,415, with Rivers Casino ing for 29% of tickets written and 34% of handle across the nine in-person sportsbooks.
There were a total of three NCAA Tournament games played by Illinois schools both years. Northwestern progressed to the second round last year, while Illinois was eliminated in the first round. In 2022, the Illini reached the Round of 32 as a No. 5 seed, while Loyola was bounced in the opening round.
Illinois and Northwestern are poised to return this year, with the Illini seeded second and the Wildcats fourth for the Big Ten tournament. Illinois is capable of playing into the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament, something it has not done since reaching the National Championship game in 2005. Loyola won a share of the Atlantic 10 regular-season title but may have to win its conference tournament to guarantee itself a spot in the field of 68.
This year, handle should increase at the very least because there are three more retail sportsbooks — Caesars at Harrah’s Metropolis, and Bally’s in Quad Cities. Circa, which launched operations in late September and will be live for its first NCAA Tournament in Illinois, averaged $320 per wager for Tier 1 college sports in December, generating $910,000 handle.
Rivers has been the top ticket writer in March both years since those Tier 1 in-state wagers became available, topping 19,000 both years. Hawthorne Race Course — which also offers retail sports betting at three Chicagoland off-track horse betting locations — took the No. 2 spot from Argosy Casino in Alton last year. Hawthorne has topped 12,000 wagers accepted both years, with handle up 27.8% from 2022, while Argosy’s volume of wagers plunged 33% despite a 33.6% increase in handle.
Chicago, though, also serves as a melting pot of Big Ten graduates, and the DraftKings Sportsbook at Wrigley Field provides a prime meeting location on the north side of the city. While those alumni will not have to step to the kiosk to make a wager — unless their school is playing Illinois or Northwestern — they will likely be out in droves the next two weeks with as many as nine teams potentially filling out the NCAA Tournament field.
