Colorado sportsbooks log $290M in August bets

Aug 22 Colorado sportsbooks revenue
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It was a solid August for Colorado sportsbooks not just in comparison to July but last year. According to the latest report from the state’s Division of Gaming, state sports bettors placed just over $290.1 million in wagers, which is a 36.9% uptick from 2021.

Month-over-month the numbers picked up as well, which is to be expected between July and August. August numbers were up 12.3% from July.

Sportsbooks held almost $25.9 million of those wagers, a rate of 8.9%. Sportsbooks deducted a collected $3.9 million in promotional deductions, resulting in what the state calls net sports betting proceeds of roughly $22 million. The state collected $1.8 million in taxes for the month.

Baseball was far and away the most popular sport to bet for the month, with $117.8 million in bets, making the MLB responsible for just over 40% of all bets. Tennis was the second-most popular sport but amassed just $29 million in handle.

Pro football rounded out the top three with $21.5 million in bets. Some of these could have been on preseason action, but others might be preseason futures bets, which won’t be settled for several months.

These numbers should also be taken with a grain of salt since parlays in any sport are treated as their own category and made up almost $53 million in bets.

Basketball and soccer rounded out the top five, but expect those ranks to change when NCAA football numbers come in for September. The college football action was right behind golf with $4.3 million in bets despite there being just a handful of games to bet on. Given that those bets only paid out $2.6 million, it is safe to suggest most of these wagers are futures bets which will settle at the end of the year.