iGaming Journalist & Crypto Casino Analyst
Sportsbook hold is the single most important number in the US betting industry, and almost nobody outside the operators tracks it properly. Hold is the share of every dollar wagered that a sportsbook keeps after paying winning bets. It is not the same as the theoretical vig printed on a betting slip, and it varies enormously by sport, by bet type and by state. This reference compiles the hold data published by state regulators and industry trackers through August 2026, explains why the national figure has climbed from single digits to double digits in three years, and shows exactly which markets are driving the change.
Key Findings
US sportsbooks held 10.2% of handle in 2025, up from roughly 9.2% in 2024, as revenue grew twice as fast as wagering. National hold reached 11.1% in April 2026. Parlays, which now carry 20-30% hold against 4.76% on a standard spread, generated 59.8% of operator winnings in tracked states. Nevada, dominated by sharp straight-bet money, held just 7.75% over its 2025-26 fiscal year.
What Hold Actually Measures
Hold percentage is calculated as gross gaming revenue divided by handle. If a state reports $1 billion in handle and $100 million in sportsbook win, the hold was 10%. That is the realised figure, after outcomes. It differs from theoretical hold, which is what the pricing implies before any games are played.
A standard two-way market priced at -110 on both sides carries a theoretical hold of 4.76%. The book takes $110 to win $100 on each side; if it balances the action perfectly it keeps $10 of every $210 risked. In practice books rarely balance action, and they no longer need to, because the mix of bets placed has shifted away from balanced two-way markets and toward multi-leg products where the built-in margin is several times larger.
This distinction matters for anyone reading state revenue reports. A state with high hold is not necessarily a state with worse prices on point spreads. More often it is a state where a larger share of the handle goes through parlays, same-game parlays and player props. Bettors comparing markets should read our guide to how betting odds and margins work before drawing conclusions from a single state's monthly report.
National Hold: The Three-Year Trend
The headline story of 2025 and 2026 is that handle growth slowed while revenue growth accelerated. US wagering rose 11.0% in 2025 to $166.94 billion, but sportsbook win rose 22.8% to $16.96 billion. That gap is entirely explained by hold expansion.
| Period | Handle | Sportsbook revenue | Hold |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 (derived) | ~$150.4B | ~$13.81B | ~9.2% |
| 2025 (full year) | $166.94B | $16.96B | 10.2% |
| Q2 2025 | — | — | 10.9% (record at the time) |
| Q4 2025 | — | — | 10.8% |
| Q1 2026 | $40.47B | $3.82B | 9.4% |
| April 2025 | — | — | 9.3% |
| April 2026 | $13.39B | $1.49B | 11.1% |
The 2024 figures in the table are derived from the reported year-over-year growth rates rather than taken from a single published total, and are marked accordingly. Every other figure comes directly from a published tracker or regulator filing.
The seasonal pattern is consistent. Q1 hold is depressed by the volume of NFL playoff and March Madness money, which attracts sharper, more concentrated action on straight sides. Summer months, with baseball parlays and low-information markets, produce the highest hold. Industry trackers expected a new all-time monthly record above 12.4% during summer 2026.
Hold by Bet Type: Where the Margin Comes From
The market-level breakdown is the most useful data in this article, because it explains almost all of the state-level variation.
| Market type | Typical hold | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Standard spread or total (-110/-110) | 4.76% theoretical | The textbook two-way margin |
| Mainline sides, totals, moneylines (actual) | 4-5% | Close to theoretical; sharp money keeps it honest |
| Player props and futures | Often double digits | Wider pricing, less efficient markets |
| Traditional parlays | 20-30% | Margin compounds across legs |
| Same-game parlays | 10-20% typical, can exceed 35% | Correlation pricing adds further margin |
Parlay hold is not a fixed number; it compounds. A three-leg parlay built from three markets each carrying 4.76% theoretical margin does not hold 4.76%. The margins multiply, which is why a modest-looking price on each leg produces a double-digit expected take on the ticket. Same-game parlays add a second layer: legs within one game are correlated, and operators price that correlation conservatively in their own favour.
The scale of the shift is documented. Same-game parlays are estimated to generate 35-40% of gross gaming revenue at major US sportsbooks in 2026, up from under 20% in 2021. Across six states tracked for parlay-specific reporting, parlay wagers rose 20% year over year while parlay revenue surged 47.7%, and parlays climbed from 51.8% to 59.8% of total operator winnings.
The state-level parlay hold data shows the same trajectory. Across May to August 2024, Maryland was the only state where hold on parlays topped 20%. In the same months of 2025, all six reported states cleared that threshold, and Mississippi came close to 30%. Bettors weighing whether the correlation upside justifies the margin should compare it against the straight-bet alternatives listed on our sports betting hub.
State-by-State Hold Comparison
State hold varies by roughly five percentage points between the highest and lowest large markets. The drivers are product mix, promotional intensity and the sophistication of the local betting population.
| State | 2025 handle | 2025 revenue | Reported hold | Tax rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| New York | $26.3B | $2.5B+ | ~9.5% | 51% |
| New Jersey | $12.2B | $1.0B+ | 10.0% (May 2025) | 13% online |
| Ohio | — | $1.0B+ | 12.0% (May 2025) | 33% |
| Nevada | — | — | 7.75% (FY 2025-26) | 6.75% |
New York is the largest market in the country and contributed $1.3 billion in sports betting tax to the state budget in 2025, a function of both its handle and its 51% tax rate, the highest in the US. New Jersey held 7.4% of national wagers.
Nevada is the instructive outlier. Its fiscal-year hold of 7.75% for the period running 1 July 2025 to 30 June 2026 sits several points below the national average, and its October 2025 hold was 7.4%. The Nevada market is disproportionately made up of straight bets from experienced, resident and visiting bettors, and it hosts the sharpest wholesale accounts in the country. Low hold in Nevada is not a sign of generosity; it is a sign of product mix and bettor sophistication. Nevada nonetheless posted its first $16 billion gaming year, with sports win rising 20%.
Hold by Sport: The Nevada Breakdown
Nevada is one of the few jurisdictions that publishes sport-level win data, which makes it the best available window into how hold varies by sport. The October 2025 report gives the clearest recent snapshot.
| Sport | October 2025 win | Hold | Year-over-year change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Football | Largest revenue growth of any sport | ~7% | Highest YoY growth in October |
| Basketball | $6.5M | 8% | Down ~10% |
| Baseball | $5.7M | — | Up 31.2% |
| All sports (state total) | — | 7.4% | — |
Football produces the largest absolute revenue because it attracts the largest handle, not because it carries the highest margin. Its roughly 7% hold sits below basketball's 8% in that month. Sports with fewer games and heavier public attention, like the NFL, tend to attract the most efficient pricing and the most balanced action on sides, which compresses hold on straight bets even as parlay volume pushes the blended figure up.
Why Hold Collapses During Major Events
The most useful counterexample in the 2026 data is New Jersey in June. The state recorded a June record of $917 million in handle during the World Cup, but hold collapsed to 6.24% and revenue fell 38% year over year to $57.3 million.
This is what happens when a large, correlated public position wins. Major international tournaments concentrate enormous volumes of money on a small number of outcomes, often on favourites and often on the same side across the whole customer base. When those outcomes land, the book has no offsetting losing action to pay them from. Hold is a realised figure, and a single tournament can move a state's monthly number by four or five percentage points in either direction. Any analysis that treats one month of state hold as a signal about pricing is misreading the data.
This variance also explains why annual figures are far more reliable than monthly ones for comparing markets. Twelve months of data smooths out the tournament effect; one month does not.
Market Structure in 2026
As of July 2026, legal sports betting is live in 39 US states plus Washington DC, with 31 states plus DC operating statewide online markets. That footprint is close to saturated among states with the political appetite to legalise, which is a structural reason for the industry's shift toward margin expansion rather than customer acquisition.
Operators can no longer grow revenue primarily by entering new states. Growth now comes from increasing the hold on existing handle, which means promoting parlays, same-game parlays and micro-markets over straight bets. That is the single most important context for interpreting the hold trend: it is a deliberate product strategy, not a run of good luck. Readers evaluating operator promotions in that light may find our breakdown of current sportsbook promotions and our US market overview useful.
Methodology
All figures in this article are drawn from published state regulator reports, industry revenue trackers and reported operator disclosures through August 2026. Hold percentages are calculated as gross gaming revenue divided by handle for the stated period.
Where a source reported a growth rate rather than an absolute figure, the derived value is calculated from the stated year-over-year percentage and labelled as derived in the relevant table. The 2024 national handle and revenue figures are the only derived values used, calculated from the reported 11.0% handle growth and 22.8% revenue growth into 2025.
Sport-level hold data is only available for jurisdictions that publish sport-specific win, which in practice means Nevada. Parlay-specific hold data is drawn from the six states that break out parlay wagering separately in their regulatory filings. National hold figures reflect the aggregate of reporting states and will differ slightly between trackers depending on which states are included and how promotional deductions are treated. No figure in this article has been estimated where a published source exists.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a good hold percentage for a sportsbook?
From the operator's perspective, anything above 9% is now considered healthy in the US market, and the 2025 national average was 10.2%. Before the parlay boom, 6-7% was a normal annual figure. From the bettor's perspective, lower is better, and Nevada's 7.75% fiscal-year hold reflects a market where straight betting still dominates.
Why is parlay hold so much higher than straight bet hold?
Because margins compound across legs. Each leg of a parlay carries its own built-in margin, and the book applies that margin at every stage rather than pricing the combined probability fairly. A ticket built from four markets each carrying roughly 4.76% margin produces a far larger expected take than any single leg.
Does high state hold mean worse odds for bettors?
Not directly. High state hold usually reflects product mix rather than pricing. A state where bettors place a large share of their handle on parlays will show high hold even if its point spread prices match everywhere else. Comparing the price on the same market across operators is a better test of value than comparing state hold.
Why did New Jersey's hold fall during the World Cup?
Because a large, correlated public position won. June 2026 saw record handle of $917 million but hold of only 6.24% and a 38% revenue decline. Major tournaments concentrate money on a small number of popular outcomes, and when those outcomes land the book has little offsetting losing action.
Which US state has the highest sports betting tax rate?
New York, at 51% of gross gaming revenue. That rate produced $1.3 billion in state tax receipts in 2025. Ohio taxes at 33% and Nevada at 6.75%, which is among the lowest in the country.
Sources
- Legal Sports Report — Sportsbooks Make More Money From Slower Betting Growth In 2025
- UNLV Center for Gaming Research — Nevada Sports Betting Totals, 1984-2025
- American Gaming Association — industry revenue tracking
- Sports Handle — US Sports Betting in 2025: Record Handle and Revenue
- Covers — US Sports Betting Revenue Tracker
Cite This Article
If you use data from this article, please link back to https://www.deucescracked.com/blog/sportsbook-hold-rates-by-sport-and-state-data — more industry data studies are collected on the DeucesCracked blog.
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