Sports bettors in Colorado went big on basketball last month, pushing handle to near-record levels.
Total March handle from retail and online sportsbooks was $505.6m, according to data released by the Colorado Department of Revenue.
According to analysts, that was a 14.8% increase over February’s handle of $440.5m, and a 68% increase from the March 2021 handle of $301m.
It was the largest Colorado monthly figure in a non-football month, besting the aforementioned March 2021 total.
The $505.6m handle also goes down as the second-highest Colorado total for any month – topped only by the record $573.7m handle in January 2022.
Overall, it was the second $500m-plus handle month since sports betting went live in Colorado in May 2020.
According to PlayColorado.com, Colorado’s top five months of total sportsbook handle have been: January 2022, $573.7m, March 2022, $505.6m, October 2021, $491.5m, November 2021, $475.4m, and, December 2021, $461.4m.
Total wagers for Colorado’s current fiscal year, which began July 1, 2021, are $3.8bn – an 86% increase from the total handle from same nine-month period in 2020-21.
Taxes collected by the state in March 2022 from sports wagering totaled $1.3m, a whopping 317.2% increase from February.
Fiscal year taxes to date through March are $9.3m, up 78.3% percent from the FYTD taxes for the same period in 2020-21 ($5.2m).
Hoops reigns supreme
While college basketball generated $96.9m in March bets, PlayColorado said March Madness was no match for its professional counterpart.
The NBA remained the Centennial State’s biggest wagering draw with a $218.4m total handle in March. That was more than double the $106.9m total from March 2021.
Pro basketball betting has led the way in Colorado in all three months so far this year, analysts reported.
The college hoops handle did see a significant jump from the previous year, climbing 36.5% from $71m in March 2021.
In all, basketball bets accounted for 62.4% of the March sportsbook handle in Colorado.
Ice hockey was a distant third last month, generating handle of slightly more than $26m.
“The Colorado Rockies getting off to a good start and the Denver Nuggets playing through most of April will help blunt the inevitable seasonal slowdown,” Eric Ramsey, an analyst for the PlayUSA.com network, which includes PlayColorado, said in a statement. “There isn’t much sportsbooks can do to avoid the seasonality of sports betting. Still, the industry made a huge leap over the last seven months, and operators can look forward to a fall that should bring even bigger numbers.”
