Colorado’s sports betting operators are experiencing the full highs and lows of an extremely cyclical market. According to numbers released recently by the Colorado Department of Revenue, February’s sports betting revenue was down significantly compared with last month and last year. But with red-hot professional basketball and hockey teams headed for post-season play, those same operators could see a big boost later in the spring.
During the course of February 2023, Colorado sports betting operators took in a combined $425.14 million in revenue. That’s down 22.3 percent from January, when they took in $547.19 million in bets. That $425.15 million in revenue also represents a 3.49 percent decrease from last February’s haul of $440.5 million in wagers.
Not surprisingly, basketball was the most active category for the first month of the US sporting calendar that isn’t dominated by professional football. Colorado players laid down $155.64 million in wagers on professional basketball and another $68.11 million on NCAA hoops.
Professional football, the bread and butter of the US sports betting business, accounted for $25.7 million in bets or about 6.7 percent of the total haul. It’s worth noting that all $25 million in football bets would have been on the Super Bowl, which was the only professional American football game played in February.
Colorado’s regulated bookmakers will likely see a boost in their fortunes later in the spring when the Denver Nuggets professional basketball and the Colorado Avalanche professional hockey teams head to their respective playoffs. For February, however, hockey bets brought in just five percent of the total action.
Table tennis, which dominated the Colorado betting market during those dark days of the Covid lockdown still brought in about 1.3 percent of Colorado’s February wagers.