The State of Delaware took in more than $7 million in sports bets between June 5th-24th, realizing $1,000,247 in revenue over the 20-day span. Delaware sports fans placed +/- 70,000 wagers at the state’s land-based racinos (i.e. no mobile), with the average bet worth $100. 75% of the dollars placed were on baseball games, with the World Cup (10%) and NBA Finals (8%) also drawing heavy action. The First State became the 1st state (besides Nevada) to offer single game sports wagering following SCOTUS’ May ruling to overturn PASPA.
Howie Long-Short: +/-$1 million in revenue equates to a 14% hold, far higher than the 5.5% Nevada has averaged dating back to ’92. Those results were “pleasantly surprising” to DE Lottery Director Vernon Kirk, who acknowledged that he’d “be surprised if it (the handle) stayed that strong.”
I asked Dustin Gouker, Managing Editor of Legal Sports Report why he thought the handle was so high; he said, “it’s too early to read too much into the hold. It’s a small sample size and it may simply be lots of bettors that are not terribly savvy, trying to figure out wagering.”
Just one of DE’s land-based racinos is publicly traded, Dover Downs Hotel & Casino, a subsidiary of Dover Downs Gaming & Entertainment (DDE); the company netted $57,293 in June from sports bets. However, all 3 of the state’s sports betting contractors are publicly listed. Scientific Games (SGMS), William Hill (WIMHY) and StadiumTech (a subsidiary of GVC Holdings, OTC: GMVHF) combined to take in $125,000 (12.5% of gross revenue) in DE sports gambling revenue for the 3-week period ending on June 24th (fiscal month).
Fan Marino: A recent white paper from GamblingCompliance projected the U.S. legal sports betting market would be “worth between $3.1-$5.2 billion in annual revenue by 2023.” The report also predicted that 25-37 states will “have lawful wagering within 5 years”, that New York would become the largest sports betting market (generating $700 million/year in annual gross gaming revenue) and that NY would become the “first state to grant leagues a cut of betting handle and require use of their data.” While those last 2 prognostications may be true, they likely won’t come to fruition before 2019; state legislators failed to pass a bill before adjourning the session. Governor Cuomo is on record doubting that a sports betting bill would pass this year.
Interested in Sports Business? Sign-up for our free daily email newsletter list, here!
