Colorado Sports Betting Handle Reaches $248.9M in May 2021

It has been one full year for Colorado Sports Betting. Since its launch on May 1st, 2020, the state has recorded $2.57 billion in wagers. This is an extraordinary amount, and Colorado has solidified itself as one of the top markets for online sports wagering.

Colorado has just reported that in May 2021 alone, sportsbooks received $248.9 million in wagers. The sportsbooks translated that handle into $15.1 million in revenue. While this is a slight decrease in revenue for sportsbooks, when looking at the totals in April and May 2021, the sports handle itself actually increased.

The one issue with Colorado sports betting has been translating that handle and revenue into state revenue. Again, the state fails to hit even a million dollars in sports betting tax revenue as it recorded a mear $635K in taxes from the sportsbooks in May.

Colorado Sports Betting 1 Year Later

It has been an impressive ride for Colorado sports betting. The state only collected $25 million in sports betting handle when it launched in May 2020, which means that the May 2021 handle is more than a $200 million increase from just a year ago. Of course, there are more sportsbooks and more sports actually going on, since May 2020 was prime time for the pandemic. However, the numbers are impressive, and Colorado is challenging Nevada and Vegas as the prime western spots to bet on sports.

What Sports Did Bettors Wager On?

By far, the largest sport for Colorado sports wagering was basketball, and almost all of that was on the NBA Playoffs. There was a total of $86.9 million wagered on basketball in Colorado, almost half of all wagers. However, when you take into account the $43.6 million in parlays, basketball likely did account for over half the sports betting handle.

Other prominent sports included baseball and hockey, which recorded $49 million and $15.4 million in sports betting handle, respectively. Combined, these three major sports, plus parlays, account for almost all the betting in Colorado.

A consistent surprise in the top-5 most wagered on sports in Colorado is table tennis. This month Colorado sportsbooks collected $10.2 million in wagers on table tennis. It is still unclear as to why the sport is so popular among bettors in Colorado.

New Sportsbooks

Colorado is a hot spot for new sportsbooks as the regulations, and licensing process is one of the most relaxed in the online sports betting scene. We have seen Bally’s and Betway both launch in Colorado this past month. It was also announced that Sports Illustrated’s new sportsbook, powered by 888, will be launching in Colorado sometime this fall.

There are now over 20 different online sportsbooks for bettors to choose from in the state. This will only help wagers increase as there are purely more options for bettors. However, this will also drive competitive odds pricing and promotions as each sportsbook fights for its piece of the pie in Colorado. Hopefully, this competition will drive better tax revenue in the future for the State of Colorado.