February is a tough month for sportsbooks. Yes, there is the Super Bowl but fewer NFL games during the rest of the month keeps bettors relatively uninterested.
The Connecticut Department of Consumer Protection reported that the Nutmeg State accepted $162.7 million in bets last month, a significant drop from the $202.6 million in January.
This is the first sub-$200 million month since October and the lowest amount of action since August.
While handle fell month over month, it was the operator’s revenue (and subsequent tax haul) that saw a massive decline versus January.
Gross revenue for both the online and retail sportsbooks came in at $13.4 million, which is just over half of January’s $24.8 million. Connecticuters may have favored the Kansas City Chiefs or they rooted for the University of Connecticut and their dominance in the Big East. Whatever the reason, this means that bettors enjoyed a good month at the expense of their state’s treasury.
The hold percentage came in at 9%, which is actually a good number for the operators but with fewer bets and a January hold of 12.2% the revenue regressed.
The tax bill fell to $2.2 million, from $2.8 million the previous month.
Fanatics still behind, but doesn’t see drop in handle
FanDuel and DraftKings dominate sports betting in Connecticut. Fanatics is a new option for bettors but a rule of thumb for operators is that it’s a challenge to get people to move off of the sportsbook they are already using.
One bit of silver lining is that these two betting giants saw massive declines in their handle and revenue while Fanatics stayed relatively unchanged. We will see next month, when handle explodes from March Madness, weather Fanatics has been building up its customer base.
| Operator | February Handle | Revenue |
|---|---|---|
| FanDuel | $79.6 million | $6.3 million |
| DraftKings | $63.4 million | $5.6 million |
| Fanatics | $12.4 million | $1 million |
