Iowa Sportsbooks Enjoyed Record Revenues in 2025
The Iowa sportsbook industry produced a new record in betting handle for the sixth straight year in 2025, but the real eye-opener was the "hold," or percentage of total wagers pocketed by the sportsbooks after paying out winnings.
The betting handle increase was from $2.77 billion in 2024 to $2.85 billion in 2025. The hold, however, went from a fairly typical 7.9% up to 9.6% in 2025.
That left the state's sportsbooks to share $266.7 million in revenue - a rise of nearly $50 million from the previous year.
The three months in Iowa that produced the lowest wagers were June, July, and August - a typical result across the U.S. In this case, the figure in each of those months was under $200 million in combined revenue.
What was atypical was the absence of a "handle boom" during the fall football season. Iowa has no NFL team, and unlike many such states, there is no team in a neighboring state close to a large city in Iowa.
Also, while the Iowa Hawkeyes college team had a fine season - 9-4, including a 34-27 win over Vanderbilt in the ReliaQuest Bowl - the team lost all four of its regular-season games against opponents ranked in the Top 25. That appears to have diminished betting enthusiasm on the Hawkeyes.
Iowa State, meanwhile, had an 8-4 record that included a four-game midseason losing streak.
So while October and November produced betting handles of $302 million and $303.1 million, respectively, those numbers were not far out front of the $289.7 million bet in January or the $287.8 million in March.
Leading sportsbooks hold their ground in ranking
After six full years of legal wagering in Iowa, the "pecking order" among the state's sportsbooks has long been established.
The same top sportsbook that led the way in Fiscal Year 2025 (mid-2024 through mid-2025) at $92.2 million in gross revenue has done so again in the last six months of 2025 at $56.6 million.
FanDuel remains a comfortable second, with $71.6 million in FY 2025 and $44.6 million in the second half of 2025.
The next four spots are far more competitive, yet the hierarchy was unchanged across the two periods. For instance, Caesars still came in third at $19.4 million and $11 million, while Fanatics came in last again at sixth, with $9.3 million and $6.2 million, respectively.
Within that quartet, Fanatics quietly seems to be making its way up, though its numbers are barely over 10% of what the number one sportsbook continues to collect each month.
Prairie Meadows again tops Iowa casinos
Much like with Iowa sports betting, the state's gamblers seem content to stick to their favorite brick-and-mortar casinos.
That has been very good news for Prairie Meadows Racetrack & Casino in Altoona, which is part of the greater Des Moines area in the central part of the state. The site opened for thoroughbred racing in 1989, for slot machines in 1995, and for live-dealer table games in 2004.
After taking in $234.8 million in Fiscal Year 2025 ending last June, Prairie Meadows added nearly $120 million more in the last six months of the calendar year.
Unlike with sports betting, however, the runnerup spot hardly is set in stone. The Horseshoe Council Bluffs casino - located in southwestern Iowa across the Missouri River from the city of Omaha, Nebraska - took in $178.7 million in FY 2025 and $83.3 million in the second half of 2025.
Right on its heels is archrival and neighbor Ameristar Casino Council Bluffs, which literally is located on the Missouri River. Ameristar's numbers were $170.7 million and $80.5 million, while actually edging out Horseshoe in December 2025 revenue.
A modest second half of 2025 left No. 4 Riverside Casino & Golf Resort - located in a town in the greater Iowa City area that lays claim to being the mythical birthplace of "Star Trek" science fiction series Capt. James T. Kirk - with a shrinking lead on five rivals in this 19-casino state.
Riverside's $61.7 million in revenue in that span had it barely nosing out Diamond Jo Casino in Worth County; Rhythm City Casino Resort in Davenport; Isle Casino Waterloo; Hard Rock Sioux City; and Grand Falls Casino in Lyon County near Sioux Falls, S.D.
Read More
