Delaware Sports Betting Handles Over $7 Million

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Delaware became the first state outside Nevada to legalize full-scale sports betting. In the first 20 days, over $7 million was handled by the state’s new sportsbooks. This is quite an impressive achievement. It will be interesting to see how New Jersey’s sports betting operations perform after a similar time period.

 

Delaware sports books handle $7 million in first 20 days

Sports books in Delaware have handled over $7 million in the first 20 days of legalized sports betting in the state.

 

Delaware keeps over $400k from Sports Betting

While it is still early days, if the state can keep up this performance, it would equal around $127 million handled in a year. This is not bad at all for a small state, especially when you consider that in 2017, Nevada’s sports books handled $248.8 million. This was also a record high for Nevada. While over $7 million was handled, the net profits were $875 216, after all the winners were paid out.

One of those winners was the state’s governor, John Carney. He placed the state’s first bet, wagering $10 on the Philadelphia Phillies to beat the Chicago Cubs. More than $6 million was paid out to winners during the 20-day period. The state was also paid $437 609, while the sports books themselves kept $352 256.

High Taxes Could Hurt Industry

While the initial numbers look good, many are worried that the high state taxes might hurt the industry. We also have to consider many people may have placed bets because it was something new, and they will not be regular gamblers going forward. Delaware claims that it doesn’t tax sports betting, but rather revenue shares with sportsbooks.

Once all of the winners have been paid out, 12.5% of the remaining money is paid to Scientific games for providing the sports betting software. Then, the state takes its 50%, 10% goes to supplement horse racing purses, and sports books keep the remaining 40%. With over $7 million handles by the sports books, who only received $350 000 in profit themselves, it shows how tough this business can be.

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