Sportsbooks in Tennessee earned $313.3m in wagers for February. Although lower than January's $386.1m, it's actually an increase over February of 2021.
This is, however, the lowest betting volume since September of 2021. Still, February's bets produced $20.9m in gross revenue, up 61.1% to over $13.3m in February 2021.
On Tuesday, the data released by the Tennessee Sports Wagering Advisory Council reported that February's win was down 42.2%.
Despite the increase in Super Bowl wagers in 2022, February still fell short of January's $36.2m win. The Tennessee Education Lottery (TEL) reported that bettors wagered $176.3m and won $163.3m in February. Sportsbooks kept $13m in revenue and the TEL gathered $2.6m in taxes.
Tennessee isn't the only state to see a decrease in sports betting in February as New York also suffered a slight dip. The month being shortened is also a contributing factor along with the NFL season ending.
The sportsbooks in Tennessee are also struggling with hold percentage. In February, the operator hold percentage was 7.3%. This is a decrease from the 10% hold percentage in November and January.
Tennessee collects 20% of the industry’s net operator revenue in taxes. Of the sports gambling taxes, 80% of the taxes collected from sports gambling go to education, 15% goes to the state for distribution to local governments and 5% goes toward mental health programs.
Tennessee recently approved three more online sportsbooks, bringing the state to 13 approved online sportsbooks. Tennessee is the only state in the country where a sportsbook going live does not have to partner with a local casino or retail book.
