Sports betting is more popular than ever in Colorado as sportsbooks in the state handled over $600m for the first time in November.
Per the Colorado Division of Gaming, sportsbooks in the state took $608.5 million in November, up 10.1% year-over-year and 9.7% on a monthly basis. Handle was broken down into $602.9 million in online bets and $5.6 million of bets coming from retail channels.
Despite record-setting handle, a month of unfavorable sporting results meant that operators only held 4.7%, an unusually low rate. The online hold rate stood at 4.68% and retail hold was 6.68%.
This meant that revenue for the state during November was $28.6 million, marking a decrease of nearly 24% YoY. The unusually low hold rate also meant a decrease of 39% in revenue on a monthly basis.
However, on a net basis, operators made around $13.6 million in revenue. This indicates that operators paid out over $14 million in promotional credit, potentially driven by the launch of ESPN BET – a trend that has been noticed in other states that have reported November revenue.
The Colorado regulator does not provide a breakdown of bets and revenue per operator, but does offer a sport-by-sport view of how operators performed during the month.
The most popular sport among bettors was the NFL which contributed $151.2 million worth of handle. After paying out $146.2 million in winnings to players, NFL bets only made $5 million in revenue.
In second place was basketball, with NBA bets reaching $143.6 million and revenue of $5.7 million. The NFL and NBA accounted for over almost half of all bets in Colorado during the month.
Meanwhile, college basketball and football accounted for a further 14.8% while tennis made up 3.7% of bets and hockey 3.2%.
Coloradans wagered over $135.3 million on parlay bets in November, which resulted in $124.2 million in payouts and $11.1 million in gross revenue for operators.
Following a tough month of trading for sportsbooks, the state took $1.49 million in taxes from operators’ net revenue.
