The Colorado Division of Gaming reported the sports betting handle for November. Colorado sportsbooks brought in 475.4 million for the month, which portrayed a decrease of 3.3 percent when compared to October’s handle that nearly eclipsed $500 million.
Colorado’s Sports Betting Revenue Hits an All-time High in November
The sports betting handle figures dropping can be attributed to October being a favorable month in terms of the sports schedule. The nearly 30 percent drop was due to the decline in the average volume of bets placed on the NFL even though the Denver Broncos had a 2-1 record for the month.
With the slight decline, it’s important to note that Colorado’s sports betting handle has more than doubled when comparing the year-to-date numbers. Sportsbooks that operate in the state accepted $231.2 million in wagers in November 2020.
The handle may be lower, but the results favored the house in November as sportsbooks reported gross revenue of 36.8 million, an increase of 28.5 percent from October.
Gross revenue hit an all-time high for the state, but sportsbooks need to factor in promotional spending as it relates to risk-free bets, deposit matches, and many others in that category. The promotional spending added up to $17.4 million, which led to $19.3 million in taxable revenue for the state.
More than half of the handle was bet on NFL, college football, and basketball. Surprisingly sportsbooks lost $1.73 million on the final game of the World Series as the Atlanta Braves took home the trophy. Bettors across the state wagered $1.43 million in bets, and sportsbooks paid out $3.16 million.
The NFL led the way with $140.3 million from the sports betting handle, which sportsbooks had a 10.3 percent hold. This made up $14.4 million in revenue.
The NBA was second on the list as bettors wagered a total of $124.7 million. The hold percentage was not as strong as it only added up to 1.9 percent or 2.3 million in revenue. College football was $29.4 million of the handle, and $29 million was because of college basketball.
College football was not good for the sportsbooks as they combined to pay out $29.7 million. College basketball made a slight profit as the total revenue was $463,673. A large portion of the revenue was thanks to parlays as it was able to mitigate the potential losses.
Bettors placed $83.8 million on parlays, and operators kept $17.1 million, good for a 20.4 percent hold. At this time, there was no indication of how much each sportsbook took in terms of market share.
Looking At the Sports Betting Market and Industry as a Whole
Colorado’s 10 percent tax rate on sportsbooks pays for the administrative costs the Colorado Division of Gaming has. The rest goes to the Office of Behavioral Health that provides gambling addiction treatment.
Arizona, Delaware, and Illinois have yet to report their sports handle numbers for November. The three remaining states on the board have to have a combined total of $1.410 billion to maintain the national handle record streak.
The three states left reported $1.349 billion for October. This will be a close call for November.
