Colorado Sees More Than $2.3B in Wagers in First Year of Legal Sports Betting

The sport in Colorado that earned the most action from the state's bettors was professional basketball, with about US$435.2 million in wagers.

Geoff Zochodne - Sports Betting Journalist at Covers.com
Geoff Zochodne • Senior News Analyst
May 11, 2021 • 12:41 ET
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Colorado sportsbooks saw more than US$2.3 billion in handle during the first year of legalized action in the state, which officials say was better than what they were expecting in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Colorado Division of Gaming recently released early and unaudited sports betting numbers for the period between May 1, 2020, and April 30 of this year. According to those figures, total wagers placed in the first year of legalized sports betting in the state amounted to US$2,325,477,052. 

Gross gaming revenues (total handle minus winning payouts) were US$148.1 million for the year, and net sports betting proceeds (the amount the state collects taxes on, which is all wagers minus free bets, payments to players, and federal excise taxes) were nearly US$66 million.

“The first year of sports betting exceeded our expectations, especially after we launched amid a worldwide pandemic that shuttered the casinos, the industry, and Colorado,” said Dan Hartman, Division of Gaming Director, in a press release. “Looking back on a year ago, I don’t believe any of us expected to be where we are with our numbers and our operations.”

Colorado voters passed a ballot measure in November 2019 that teed up the state to allow legal sports betting both in-person and online. In doing so, Colorado became the 19th state in the U.S. to legalize some kind of sports betting.

The first bets were taken in Colorado in May 2020 by a handful of internet operators, with around US$25.6 million in wagers placed in that first month. By March of this year, however, the state was reporting approximately US$301 million in wagers (the vast majority of it from online sources) via 20 internet operators and 16 retail books. 

The total win percentage for the state from May 2020 to March 2021 was 6.24 percent. The sport that earned the most action from the state's bettors was professional basketball, with about US$435.2 million in wagers. The next most popular sport was professional football, at approximately US$383.5 million.

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Geoff Zochodne, Covers Sports Betting Journalist
Senior News Analyst

Geoff has been writing about the legalization and regulation of sports betting in Canada and the United States for more than three years. His work has included coverage of launches in New York, Ohio, and Ontario, numerous court proceedings, and the decriminalization of single-game wagering by Canadian lawmakers. As an expert on the growing online gambling industry in North America, Geoff has appeared on and been cited by publications and networks such as Axios, TSN Radio, and VSiN. Prior to joining Covers, he spent 10 years as a journalist reporting on business and politics, including a stint at the Ontario legislature. More recently, Geoff’s work has focused on the pending launch of a competitive iGaming market in Alberta, the evolution of major companies within the gambling industry, and efforts by U.S. state regulators to rein in offshore activity and college player prop betting.

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