Thanks to relatively recent state launches in Colorado and Illinois, the US sports betting market likely will hit another high.
Legal US sports betting handle appears to have eclipsed the $3 billion mark for the first time in October.
Sports betting in Colorado accounted for $210.7 million in handle last month, according to the state report released Monday. That brings total reported October handle to $2.82 billion.
September‘s handle total was $2.87 billion.
That means Illinois sports betting would have needed $182.3 million in handle to hit $3 billion. That should be easy for the growing market in the Land of Lincoln, which took $305 million in bets in September.
Illinois lags most states in reporting revenue, meaning October results will not arrive until next month.
US handle for October so far
Along with multiple states that are ramping up their operations, the likely October handle record was helped by 13 handle records in the 15 reporting jurisdictions.
| State | Handle | Revenue | Hold | Taxes/State Revenue |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Arkansas | $6,559,859 | $940,514 | 14.3% | $122,267 |
| Colorado | $210,719,821 | $17,402,409 | 8.3% | $824,700 |
| Delaware | $17,086,034 | $3,483,045 | 20.4% | $2,534,638 |
| Illinois | $ – | $ – | — | $ – |
| Indiana | $230,932,251 | $21,098,460 | 9.1% | $2,004,354 |
| Iowa | $81,902,416 | $9,098,995 | 11.1% | $612,967 |
| Michigan | $46,120,824 | $7,596,972 | 16.5% | $638,146 |
| Mississippi | $61,192,425 | $8,769,600 | 14.3% | $1,052,352 |
| Montana | $ – | $ – | — | $ – |
| Nevada | $659,899,331 | $42,388,000 | 6.4% | $2,861,190 |
| New Hampshire | $47,055,486 | $4,203,875 | 8.9% | $2,001,597 |
| New Jersey | $803,096,172 | $58,508,647 | 7.3% | $7,440,873 |
| New Mexico | $ – | $ – | — | $ – |
| New York | $ – | $2,623,464 | — | $262,346 |
| Oregon | $29,455,228 | $2,751,147 | 9.3% | $ – |
| Pennsylvania | $525,802,524 | $47,834,647 | 9.1% | $13,239,694 |
| Rhode Island | $34,704,413 | $4,388,841 | 12.6% | $2,238,309 |
| Washington DC | $18,535,847 | $3,662,080 | 19.8% | $271,777 |
| West Virignia | $44,633,016 | $3,742,779 | 8.4% | $374,278 |
| Total | $2,817,695,647 | $238,493,475 | 8.5% | $36,479,488 |
New Jersey set the overall US handle record at $803 million in October. Nevada, Pennsylvania, Indiana and Colorado make up the remaining top five jurisdictions by handle so far.
Colorado, which only saw handle rise 1.5% from September, will likely get bumped once Illinois reports its results at some point by mid-December.
Colorado sports betting includes heavy promos
Along with record handle for the quickly growing Colorado market, the market hit record sports betting revenue as well. Colorado sportsbooks reported $17.4 million in revenue last month, good for 8.3% hold.
Colorado has a 10% sports betting tax, but revenue didn’t translate to $1.74 million in taxes. Instead, the state wound up with $824,700.
That’s because along with the 0.25% federal excise tax, operators are allowed to deduct free bets and promotions from their revenue.
Colorado’s net revenue was $9.6 million, suggesting operators paid $7.2 million in promos and free bets, or 41.6% of total revenue. That’s up from $7 million in promos for September.
Football captures top spot
Football is finally the market leader in terms of handle, knocking baseball out of the top spot last month.
NFL betting accounted for $68 million in bets, up from $38.6 million in September. Baseball betting, meanwhile, fell to $23 million last month from $47.1 million.
Baseball was still the second-most bet individual sport, though the parlays category ranked higher at $37.2 million.
