Regulated sports betting is proving to be an unmitigated success in Colorado after 15 months of operation. Fueled by a flurry of new player promos and an unusual uptick in baseball wagering, Colorado’s regulated sports betting operators saw their revenue leap 102 percent and their handle jump 64 percent in August 2021 over the previous year.
All told, Colorado players dropped $211 million on sports wagers throughout the month. That’s up 64 percent from August 2020, when professional sports were hobbled by lockdown and quarantine protocols.
Of that $211 million, $208.3 million was placed on online wagers, while the remaining $3.6 million was dropped at retail outlets.
As is almost always the case with sports betting, that huge gross gaming revenue number gets knocked down pretty severely by the time every party gets their cut. Players, for starters, got about $197 million back in wins while taxpayers got $726,366 (which is used on water conservation projects).
Through the dog days of summer baseball ruled the Colorado sports betting scene with 32.8 percent of all wagers. That amounted to $69.6 million in revenue, of which approximately $2.5 million went back to the casinos. Professional football, which was still entirely in its preseason during August, brought in $13.6 million in wagers, of which operators netted $3.1 million, according to a report on Legal Sports Report.
Colorado sports betting operators bumped up their promotions significantly to coincide with football season, so it’s likely that September’s numbers will be equally impressive.