Colorado Sports Betting Rebounds After February Dip; $300M Wagered in March
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Colorado had a big March that proved the state is interested in more than just football. The state was able to bring in a total of $300.99 million of total wagers. This blows February’s total of $266.55 million out of the water. While February does have the Super Bowl, that is pretty much it, and we saw that it led to a very small betting month. This was not the case with March, as March Madness really bolstered the total betting handle.
Sportsbooks were able to double their revenue from February to March, tallying $20.37 million in total gross gaming revenue. Both this and the sports betting handle are second only to January 2021 when it comes to the biggest months in Colorado’s sports betting history.
The state was able to translate that sportsbook revenue to $1.06 million in taxes. Again, this was another total that only comes second to January’s ridiculously prolific month.
Sports Betting Breakdown
Colorado does a great job of breaking down where exactly the money went each and every month. It was no surprise that the NBA led the month with a handle of $106 million. This is a massive total, but the reason that March went so well was the $70 million wagered on NCAA Basketball. March Madness clearly had a significant effect on Colorado. Without the NCAA tournament, this month would have likely been the smallest since early in the 2020 NFL season for Colorado. When you also take into consideration that Parlays accounted for $55 million, it is likely that at least two-thirds of all betting was on pro or collegiate basketball.
However, there were some other major contributing sports. Hockey brought in $13.7 million, and Tennis brought in $10.8 million. Both are pretty solid totals, especially for Colorado. The most surprising total to those unfamiliar with Colorado sports betting would probably be Table Tennis at $8.8 million wagered. Table Tennis is massive in the Colorado sports betting scene, and nobody really knows why.
Looking Forward
April totals will be very eye-opening for sports betting in Colorado. Sportsbooks only took $600K worth of wagers for baseball in March. Obviously, the season had not really started at this point, but if those numbers do not turn into massive totals, it is very likely that April dips below even February’s numbers. One key here is that the local Rockies are just horrible, which leads to less general excitement around Major League Baseball in the state.
The next chance that Colorado will have to break January’s numbers will likely be September when the NFL and FBS Football seasons start again. Now, this is not isolated to Colorado, but Colorado is a massive football state. The state loves their Broncos and is always one of the biggest supporters of the NFL in general.
Colorado is currently sitting behind Nevada, New Jersey, Illinois, Michigan, and Pennsylvania in terms of sports betting totals each month. However, I project that Virginia will also pass up Colorado, and the state will have to look out for Maryland, Indiana, and Tennessee in the near future.
