Colorado betting handle surges 117% in August
Wagers placed during the month hit $128.6m as basketball accounts for almost 30% of total stakes
Sport betting handle in Colorado rocketed 117% month-on-month during August to $128.6m, up from $59.1m in July, as the state recorded its third consecutive month of growth since going live on May 1.
The strong performance means August’s handle in the Centennial State outstripped the total generated in May, June and July combined ($123m) and wasn’t too far off matching Indiana’s handle of $169m in August.
Due largely to the impact of the coronavirus, mobile accounted for over 98% of total handle, which a was broadly similar trend to July.
Figures released by the Colorado Department of Revenue’s Division of Gaming showed that total revenue for August came to $7.5m while net betting proceeds across all operators was $1.8m.
The total win percentage was 5.85% while taxes collected amounted to just over $189,000.
In terms of the sports bet on, the regulator revealed basketball accounted for 29.6% of all wagers with $38m staked. This was followed by baseball on 17.7% ($22.7m) and ice-hockey on 10.6% ($13.6m).
Somewhat surprisingly, table tennis – a sport used by bookmakers to plug the gap left by US sport during lockdown – accounted for 3.5% of handle, with $4.5m staked. This put it ahead of golf, soccer and MMA.
‘Other’ sports and parlays generated handle of $13.7m and $22.6m respectively.
Since Colorado flicked the switch in May, there are more than a dozen online sportsbooks, the latest to go live being SportsBetting.com from Carousel Group.
