August handle was up 64.7% year-on-year. With the month’s wagers, Colorado has surpassed $3.0 bn in lifetime handle ($3.2bn to be exact) since launching sports betting in May 2020.
Gross gaming revenue for the month was $15.2m, a decrease of 3.2%. The drop in revenue is likely a result of increased promotional play at mobile sportsbooks ahead of the NFL season.
Colorado’s market continues to be dominated by mobile betting, which accounted for $208m, or 98%, of all handle.
Baseball led all sports with $69.6m in handle, a 14% increase from July even as the home state Colorado Rockies fell out of MLB’s playoff race.
The main differentiator between July and August though was the NFL, which was second among all sports in handle with $13.6m wagered. College football generated $2.6m.
Most NFL teams played three preseason games in August, and the first slate of college football games took place during the last weekend of the month.
September could produce record football handle in the Mountain High State. Approximately $44m was wagered on the first weekend of NFL games alone, Division of Gaming director Daniel Hartman told the Denver Post last week.
Colorado continues to attract bettors to a diverse range of sports; tennis was the third most wagered on sport in August ($13.5m), followed by soccer ($11.4m), basketball ($10.6m) and table tennis ($8.1m).
