The summer slump for legal sports betting is over. Thanks to September baseball and football season, legal betting states are seeing an uptick in action.
Colorado's Department of Revenue announced that the state's online sports betting sites accepted $306 million in wagers in August, an 8.8% monthly increase. And, after paying out winning tickets, the sportsbooks kept $25.8 million, an 8.4% hold. An 8.8% hold was reported in July.
The drop in hold hurt Colorado sports betting operators more than the state’s coffers. Sportsbooks reported $18.6 million in net receipts, slightly less than July’s $19 million. But, the state’s tax bill hit $1.8 million, slightly higher than July’s $1.7 million.
Retail books buoyed by football
While the online books won in nearly every sport (except for MMA), the brick and mortar operators were lucky to be profitable.
As a whole, bettors who went to a physical location beat the sportsbooks. Seven of the top 10 sports Coloradans bet on were profitable for retail bettors. And yet those books netted $244,000 in August and reported a 13.1% hold.
The reason was that these same bettors had disastrous luck in their football bets. Sportsbooks reported a 39% hold in pro-football wagers, and an 87% hold in college football.
That being said Coloradans did not see football as their go-to sport. Instead, baseball led all sports with 34.5% of the statewide action, followed by tennis (9.8%), basketball (8.6%), and soccer (6.7%).
