Mighty New Hampshire Hits $100M in Sports Betting Handle in October
October has been a very good month for legal sports betting throughout the United States. Many states are announcing record handle amounts. The combination of football, playoff baseball, basketball, and hockey all occurring during the month yielded a lot of bets.
New Hampshire was one of the states that had a large month of betting. The state had another sweep of records in all areas. The numbers were announced on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving.
The October Handle
The October handle was vast in New Hampshire for sports betting. New Hampshire is a single operator state with DraftKings having control, but this has still led to a large number of wagers.
The state recorded a handle of $98.19 million, which was up 44.1% from the latest record of $68.1 million from September. The back-to-back records show how monumental football is for legal sports betting in the state and around the nation.
The year-to-year increase from October was 108.7% from the $47.05 million total in 2020. This is a huge reason for lawmakers to celebrate in the state.
The sole operator format makes the handle more significant. States with multiple operators create competition. This forces more people to get involved in the industry with multiple books.
With DraftKings being the only operator, it’s remarkable that New Hampshire is making massive gains. DraftKings was able to secure the whole state because it agreed to give 51% of the revenue to the government.
DraftKings has the whole mobile market and then three retail betting facilities in Seabrook, Manchester, and Dover.
The Mobile Handle and Revenue
Mobile sports betting is the bread and butter for New Hampshire, despite the three retail sportsbooks in the state. The mobile sports betting handle was $68.12 million, which was up 35% from September’s total.
In September, the total was $50.46 million, a 69.4% increase from October of 2020. The gross gaming revenue in the state also went up 22.4% to $5.40 million. The state collected just over half of this total from DraftKings, so it was a solid payday for the government.
The state took home a total of $2.56 million, which was up 35.7% from September’s $1.88 million. The yearly increase was 27.9% from the $2 million in October of 2020.
The former record was in November of 2020, and this is an indication that a new record could be set in 2021. The November 2020 total was $2.32 million, so the state is set up for success in the current month.
The back-to-back records for the state were a nice sign for the state after five straight months of decline. NFL and college football betting were the two big sports over the past two months. Playoff baseball is not present in November, but college basketball has filled the void.
It’s expected that New Hampshire will set a milestone in the current month. Some of the other states on track for a large handle are Pennsylvania, Michigan, Indiana, and Tennessee. Nevada and Illinois have still not reported their numbers.
