The Colorado Department of Revenue has released the state’s sports betting figures for September, revealing a betting handle of $562.9 million, an increase of more than 9.7% year-on-year.
The September sports betting handle also experienced a 51.1% increase month-on-month thanks to the return of the NFL. Meanwhile, gross gaming revenue (GGR) was more than $55 million, resulting in over $4 million in taxes.
The Colorado Department of Revenue doesn’t break down its revenues by operators like other U.S. states, instead providing insight into the betting numbers across popular sports.
| Sport | September Handle | Revenue |
|---|---|---|
| Football (pro) | $173.1 million | $10 million |
| Baseball | $68.9 million | $4.1 million |
| Football (NCAA) | $42.3 million | $1.1 million |
| Tennis | $42.0 million | $3.0 million |
| Basketball | $33.0 million | $1.1 million |
| Soccer | $27.4 million | $2.3 million |
| Table Tennis | $17.8 million | $1.5 million |
| MMA | $3.9 million | $1.1 million |
| Golf | $1.5 million | -$14,987 |
| Ice Hockey | $1.1 million | $166,165 |
The impact of the NFL
The NFL is the most popular betting sport in the U.S., and there were four NFL weekends in September. That helped bring in a handle of more than $173.1 million for the NFL, which accounted for more than 30% of wagers in September. It also marked a significant increase in the sports betting handle on the sport compared to September 2023, where sportsbooks handled more than $157.4 million.
The state collected over $10 million in NFL revenue from that sports betting handle, which accounted for nearly 18% of state-wide revenues. This revenue total only amounted to a GGR hold of 5.8% for sportsbooks. Other sports provided much greater holds in September, such as soccer, with a hold of 8.7%.
The NFL recently improved its betting integrity measures, introducing suspicious betting activity investigators in each NFL stadium during the 2024 season.
Other popular betting sports in September
Aside from the NFL, baseball was the second-largest contributor to the Colorado sports betting handle, adding more than $68.9 million. However, this was a steep decline of 33.1% from August when the baseball betting handle hit $103.2 million. September featured the backend of the MLB season, right before the playoffs started.
While college football started in August, the season got into full swing during September, which helped NCAA betting on college football bring in more than $42.3 million.
Some other sports betting handles stayed consistent with August, with table tennis and basketball barely changing month-on-month.
Retail sports betting numbers drop year-on-year
While Colorado posted significant rises in the overall sports betting handle year-on-year, it was a different story for retail sportsbooks. In September, retail sportsbooks handled $4.84 million, a decline of nearly 0.5% from last September.
While this difference is nearly negligible, it paints a significantly different picture to the growth generated by online sportsbooks. Colorado’s land-based gambling locations seem increasingly focused on online sports betting, with two local Native American tribes continuing to battle to launch online betting platforms. Online handle reached more than $558.07 million in September.
