More than 16.5 million geolocation transactions were reported during the opening five days of Maryland’s newly regulated online sports betting market.
Data published by geolocation and fraud prevention specialist GeoComply revealed activity across 477,365 unique accounts between November 23, the day the state’s market opened, and November 28.
The five-day period included the Thanksgiving weekend, and some 3.7 million geolocations transactions were recorded on Thanksgiving Day alone, with focus on events such as the NFL, NBA and the 2022 Fifa World Cup.
Maryland outperforming similar states
GeoComply also noted that Maryland far outperformed a number of neighboring states in which online gambling has been legal for some time and that have a similar population.
Virginia was the closest on 8.5 million geolocation transactions, just over half the number recorded in Maryland, followed by Indiana on 6.7 million, Tennessee with 6.6 million and Colorado on 3.8 million across the five days.
“A strong start for the regulated market delivers on the promise of new revenues and consumer protections,” GeoComply’s senior vice president of compliance Lindsay Slader said.
“Marylanders will continue to ditch illegal offshore sportsbooks for the security of legal, regulated operators that provide player safeguards and tax dollars for the state, just as lawmakers intended.”
Seven operators were active in the state over the five-day period, with Barstool, BetRivers, BetMGM, Caesars, DraftKings, FanDuel and PointsBet having all gone live after securing the relevant approval from Maryland authorities.