The Colorado Department of Revenue has reported a 20.8% month-on-month decline in sports betting revenue in the state during August, despite its handle more than doubling to $128.6m.
Players wagered a total of $126.6m with online operators in August, with retail sportsbooks taking just $2.0m in bets. Consumers won a total of $121.m from sports wagers during the month.
Basketball was the most popular sport to wager on, with total bets across both online and retail amounting to $38.0m – accounting for 29.6% of all bets in the month – ahead of baseball on $22.8m and17.7% of the market.
Parlay betting totalled $22.7m in August, representing 17.6% of the Colorado market, while players also wagered $13.6m on ice hockey, making up 10.6% of all bets in the month.
After player winnings, gross gaming revenue for the month came to $7.5m, up 44.7% from July. However, after adjustments – at a time when marketing activity such as bonusing was ramped up with major leagues returning – net revenue came to $1.9m, down from $2.4m in July and the lowest monthly total since the $946,741 generated in the state’s first full month of legal sports wagering in May.
Online remained the primary source of income for licensed betting operators in Colorado, with revenue reaching $1.6m, compared to just $239,060 from retail operations.
Operators paid a total of $189,462 in tax on sports betting activities in August, with $163,885 from online and $23,906 from retail sportsbooks.
Since the market opened in May this year, licenced operators on Colorado have generated total revenue of $7.4m, with players staking a total of $249.6m.
Colorado’s handle could be set for further growth in September after a number of other operators rolled out offerings in the past few weeks.
Bet.Works rolled out branded self-service betting terminals at the Red Dolly Casino in Blackhawk, Colorado with its partner Elite Casino Resorts, while sports betting and media business theScore also launched its sportsbook in the state.
William Hill’s US business also introduced its online and mobile sportsbook in Colorado this month, as did Betfred USA Sports, the US-facing arm of the British bookmaker, and SportsBetting.com, the online sportsbook operator owned and operated by igaming start-up Carousel Group.
In addition, casino giant Wynn Resorts announced it was to extend its sports betting and igaming partnership with Scientific Games into Colorado and Indiana.
The extension will enable Wynn to deploy SG Digital’s OpenSports enterprise solution for online sports wagering in both states.