Tennessee Sports Betting Handle Hits $27 Million In First Week


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Tennessee sports betting

It didn’t take long for the residents of Tennessee to show they’ve been ready and waiting for legal sports betting to begin.

Sports bettors wagered nearly $27.4 million in the first week of legal sports betting in Tennessee. That led to $2.5 million in revenue from the mobile-only market, good for 9.3% hold.

Those totals include $5.1 million bet on Nov. 1, an NFL betting Sunday when the market officially went live. The market’s four operators took $800,000 in revenue from those day-one bets.

Those figures, along with transaction volume and total active users during the first week, are encouraging, Tennessee Education Lottery CEO Rebecca Paul Hargrove said.

No details in Tennessee sports betting figures

The Lottery didn’t break down which operators did what over the eight-day period. There are still just four operators live in the market:

Three other operators are waiting for their licenses to be approved:

The Lottery hopes to call a special meeting to approve those licenses by the end of the year, Hargrave said.

Not all operators complying with requirements

Some of the aspects of TN sports betting aren’t going as smoothly as the Lottery would like.

For example, all operators are supposed to get all advertising materials and promotions pre-approved before using them. That isn’t always happening, though, according to discussion during Monday’s Sports Wagering Advisory Council Meeting.

Daily reports are also required from all operators, but sometimes those are coming in late or not at all.

10% hold violations discussed, too

There still seems to be some confusion over how exactly operators can be held accountable for not hitting the Lottery’s 10% minimum hold.

One council member suggested a single $25,000 fine at the end of the year would be seen as the “cost of doing business.”

The Lottery does have the right to “impose additional recourse” for non-compliance.