Colorado’s regulated sports betting operators had plenty to be thankful for in November, 2021 as they cashed in a record gross gaming revenue haul of $36.8 million. Centennial State sportsbooks were aided by a full slate of professional and college sports, as well as a betting public that’s sweet on parlays.
While revenue was up big time for the month, Colorado’s November handle of $475.5 million was actually down three percent over October. While October, 2021 had the benefit of five football weekends, November 21 was the first month of NBA and college basketball, which helped fill in the gaps.
As is almost always the case in the United States, football drew in the most wagers. Between college and professional games, Colorado players dropped $140.3 million in wagers. The sportsbooks got to keep about $14.4 million of that haul.
Professional basketball was the second choice for Colorado sports betting with a $124.7 million handle. That said, basketball bettors were considerably sharper than football bettors and only left behind about $2.3 million in profits for the sportsbooks. (College football bettors were even sharper; laying down $29.4 million in wagers but leaving only $463,673 in revenue.)
Of course the opposite of a sharp wager is a parlay and Colorado players love parlays. Parlays accounted for $83.3 million with about 20 percent of that cash staying at the sportsbook.
Ian St Clair, the lead analyst for PlayColorado.com commented on Colorado’s red hot sports betting market in a statement covered by SBC Americas saying, “Every market has grown significantly over the last few months, but few have performed better than Colorado since the football season began in September.
“November was a sort of litmus test for how sustainable the growth will be once football season ends because there were fewer games played than in October. A jump in basketball betting is an excellent sign for sportsbooks.”