After losing $100 million in bets from January to February, March Madness brought a near-perfect rebound in Tennessee, after February’s drop off.
Key takeaways:
- Tennessee’s handle rebounded quite well after February’s decline
- Year-over-year handle continues its incredible run of growth
- Neighboring states reported worse drop offs in handle from January to February
The Tennessee Sports Wagering Council (SWC) reported that Tennessee sportsbooks accepted $551.7 million in wagers in March.
The Volunteer State's handle has yo-yoed these past few months, with January’s handle coming in at $543.6 million before February’s 23% decline to $417.4 million. Now it’s back to January’s number. Along with that, $10 million in taxes has been raised for the state.
However, the good news will most likely end there because without the first two rounds of the college basketball tournaments, bettors are less interested in making wagers.
Since Tennessee launched legal sports betting, April’s action has always been lower than March. Not only that, but March’s handle will most likely be the highest until football season starts in the fall.
Year-over-year handle rose 15%, which also reinforces Tennessee’s strength in the betting market.
Regulators certainly are aware of their still growing sports betting space since they are one of the states to take an active role in the face of prediction markets that looks eerily similar to sports betting options, this month they wrote to the Commodity Futures Trading Commissions (CFTC) and expressed their concern about the overlap.
February’s decline hurting everyone
Football is king in the betting space, but when you have just one real game to watch, sportsbooks see their action decline, compared to January, which is filled with playoff games.
With that said, Tennessee showed its strength with a 23% monthly fall, which may be viewed as a negative, but compared to neighboring states, it wasn’t as bad.
In comparison, Virginia’s $736.5 million handle in January fell to $556 million in February, a 24.5% decline. Also, North Carolina’s $811.6 million handle in January dropped to $525.9 million in February, a massive 35% decline.
