The Colorado Department of Revenue reported a less than stellar month to end 2024. In December, sportsbooks statewide announced $648.4 million in wagers, unchanged from the $648 million the previous month.
Compared to the end of 2023, handle fell nearly 10%, which is the first time since legal sports betting launched where December’s action fell year over year. And this is just the fifth time in 44 months where handle dropped versus the previous year.
While wagers staying stagnant is not ideal, what matters is how much they earned from those bets, which unfortunately was much worse. Bettors enjoyed their December as they hammered the lines and reduced the operators hold percentage to a very friendly 4.6%.
That means from the $648.4 million in bets, the sportsbooks grossed $29.8 million and netted $14.5 million. The state’s cut was just under $1.5 million which in context is quite poor. The tax bill came in 62% lower than last month and 60% lower than last December.
Brick-and-mortar locations are also feeling the pain, they actually paid out $40,000 more than they took in, which is a -0.9% hold.
NBA bets grow as football stays unchanged
Overall handle may not have moved much since November but basketball action saw a serious increase. After just over $80 million in bets the previous month, this time bettors wagered more than $130 million. That doesn’t include college basketball, which added an additional $32 million.
Football on the other hand saw little difference compared to November. NFL bets fell by $2 million while college football grew by $1.5 million. Despite the total drop, they were still two of the top three sports in Colorado last month.
| Sport | Handle |
|---|---|
| Football | $166.7 million |
| Basketball | $138.1 million |
| NCAA Football | $43.5 million |
| NCAA Basketball | $32.7 million |
| Table Tennis | $29.4 million |
| Soccer | $18.7 million |
| Ice Hockey | $15.8 million |
| Tennis | $15 million |
| MMA | $1.9 million |
| Cricket | $744,000 |
| Parlays | $166.6 million |
| Other | $18.9 million |
Retail woes explained
Parlays are the sportsbooks' favorite offering. They usually generate the highest handle and revenue, thanks to their long odds. But for the retail markets they had to pay out $1.1 million to bettors, despite only accepting $910,000 in action. Meaning they lost money on the safest bet for the operators.
Colorado sports betting's mobile sportsbooks on the other hand held 6.9% of the parlay bets they saw, much higher than the 4.6% statewide hold.
While the online books technically won money on each sport they took wagers on (retail also lost on soccer and MMA), they barely squeaked by. After parlays, NFL bets grossed the sportsbooks just over $500,000. And from nearly $165 million in tickets, that’s a hold of under 0.01%.
