Colorado’s sports betting market recorded significant year-on-year growth in May 2021.
According to the latest figures from the Colorado Division of Gaming, bettors in the state wagered $249m on sports in May.
May’s betting handle was up 872.2% year-on-year from $25.6m in May 2020, the first month of legal betting in the state. Colorado’s betting handle was also up 1.2% on the $244.4m wagered in April 2021.
Bettors in the state wagered $246.5m via online sportsbooks while land-based sportsbooks took $16.8m in bets.
Turning to revenue, the state’s sportsbooks managed to generate $15.2m in May up from just $946,641 in May 2020. Although revenue skyrocketed year-on-year, this figure was down month-on-month from the $17.6m generated in April 2021.
Sportsbooks in the state paid $636,450 in taxes for the month of May, while bettors won $233.8m back from the bookies.
What did people bet on?
Basketball was once again the most popular sport to bet on in May, with Colorado bettors spending $86.9m on basketball wagers across online and land-based channels.
Baseball followed in a distant second after accounting for $49m of the state’s total handle in May.
Ice Hockey was the next most popular sport to bet on after sportsbooks took $15.5m in hockey wagers.
Table tennis was the only other individual sport to surpass $10m in bets in May after sports fans in the state wagered $10.3m on table tennis events.
Meanwhile, parlay and combination bets accounted for $43.7m of the state’s handle in May, while sports in the ‘other’ category accounted for $16.8m in wagers.
Sports betting in Colorado
Colorado launched its online sports betting market on 1 May 2020, in the early months of the coronavirus pandemic.
As the market went live in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic, Colorado’s betting industry got off to a rocky start. This was mainly due to the fact that nearly every major or professional sports league had to postpone their events, which in turn resulted in a lack of events to bet on.
However, when major sports returned in August 2020, the state’s betting market saw consistent growth all the way through to January 2021.
Last month, the Colorado Division of Gaming revealed that in the first year of legal betting in Colorado, consumers spent $2.34bn on sports bets. Meanwhile, sportsbooks in the state generated $148.1m in gross gaming revenue during the same period.
Figures from the state’s Division of Gaming also showed that the state received $65.9m in tax during the first year of legal betting.
