Colorado caps a hot year with December’s numbers
Football did well, but the real growth was in basketball.
Colorado ended a strong year on a strong note: with $461.4m in bets, December marked the third consecutive month when the betting very nearly hit the half a billion mark.
Altogether for the year, the Centennial State has generated $250m in revenue off of almost $4bn in wagers.
This means that Colorado now has the sixth highest sports handle of any state in the Union, quite an accomplishment in what has proven to be a dynamic and exciting time for sports betting. The vast majority of bets – nearly 99% – were made online, a tell sign of what the future of the industry looks like.
December’s $460m was a year-on-year increase of 62.46%.
Indeed, the numbers from this year showed remarkable growth across the board.
The $3.85bn total wagers was up $1.2bn from 2020. This led to $250m in gross gaming revenue, miles ahead of the $76m seen in 2020.
Finally, public officials can be happy with the growth of gaming in the state: the $11.7m in state taxes was nearly four times the $2.96m of 2020.
The biggest driver of growth at the year’s end was the increasing popularity of basketball betting. The NBA’s popularity is gaining on the perennial mainstay, NFL football. Pro basketball saw $125.5m in bets in December, just behind football’s $136.5m.
Other sports that performed well include college basketball ($27.5m in handle), college football (24.5m), ice hockey ($14.5m) and soccer ($12.7m).
For annual total, it was pro basketball that did the best: its long season and high number of games saw it take $958m in wagers, significantly more than football’s $689.2m.
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