Colorado Sports Betting

Colorado sports betting is a growing industry with both retail sportsbooks and online sports betting alive and well.

Colorado’s sportsbooks have grown from making a few hundred thousand dollars to raking in hundreds of millions in wagers. The future is bright for Colorado sportsbooks. Here’s everything bettors need to know about it.

Summary of the Best Colorado Sports Betting Apps

• William Hill Sportsbook: Best for New Bettors
• BetRivers Sportsbook: Best for Deposit Bonus
• FanDuel Colorado: Best for iOS & Android App
• BetMGM: Best for MGM Players
• PointsBet: Best for Risky Bettors
• DraftKings Sportsbook: Best for DFS Players

Recent Colorado Sports Betting Updates

Colorado’s online sports betting industry isn’t a slow burn growing over time. Industry developments make headlines and generate what can be valuable hype. Here are some of them.  

• Colorado Saw $266.5 In Revenue In February 2020: Colorado saw total Gross Gaming Revenue of $266.5 million during February, with over $258.2 million of that revenue from online betting which accounted for 97% of the bets placed.
• Wynn Resorts Launched A Colorado Sportsbook App- Wynn Resorts launched its WynnBet App in Colorado, the second state for the company to launch in. It’s yet another player in an industry that continues to grow.
• Sky Ute Sportsbook Is Launching An E-Sports-Only Sportsbook- Sky Ute Sportsbook secured partnerships with GameCo LLC and U.S. Bookmaking to create an e-sports-exclusive sportsbook. It’d be the first e-sports sportsbook in the United States, making Colorado’s only tribal sportsbook one of its most ambitious innovators.
• CU Boulder Signed A Deal With PointsBet- In September 2020, PointsBet signed a partnership with the University of Colorado at Boulder. It’s the first partnership of its kind in the United States–another first from Colorado’s sports betting industry.
• The Colorado Rockies Signed A Deal With DraftKings- DraftKings partnered with another Colorado professional sports franchise toward the end of 2020. It’s another step in preparing for a strong 2021.

Colorado’s 6 Best Sports Betting Apps & Sites

While Colorado has many sportsbooks, it has a clear top five that’s influential in Colorado and beyond. Here’s what bettors need to know about Colorado’s top five sportsbook brands.

All Colorado Sportsbook Sites

How To Place A Bet In Colorado

Placing a bet in Colorado may be intimidating for new bettors. But it’s made up of a few straightforward steps. Here’s how bettors can make their first bets.

How To Choose A Colorado Sportsbook

There are a few ways to pick a sportsbook. Bettors can find the best odds, best reward programs, or the best welcome bonuses to cash in on. Bettors should decide what’s most important, then pick a sportsbook that matches their priorities.

How To Create A Sportsbook Account

Registering for a sportsbook is mostly like registering for any other website, but with more personal information. Bettors must provide their social security numbers to complete their registration. It ensures sportsbooks match payments to individual identities–and don’t pay criminals or excluded bettors.

How To Verify Your Location

Most Colorado sportsbooks do this automatically. Some require bettors to download a geolocation plugin. That keeps sportsbooks from letting out-of-state bettors use their online sportsbooks.

How To Deposit

Find the deposit option near the account section of any sportsbook–often in the top right corner of the screen. Select the desired deposit method, enter the amount, then place your first wager.

How To Place A Bet

Find a line and select the part of the line you want to bet on. Select everything you want to be included in your bet slip, then decide how much you want to wager. Sportsbooks display potential winnings, so bettors don’t have to worry about the math. Just hit submit, and keep your fingers crossed for your teams.

Colorado Legal Sportsbooks

Legal sportsbooks are safer than illegal or unlicensed sportsbooks. They’re subject to strict industry controls that unlicensed sportsbooks are free to ignore.

Colorado licensed sportsbooks are required to keep a cash reserve to ensure they can pay their bettors. Unlicensed sportsbooks–and small-time bookies–don’t have to worry about effective operations. If they go under, bettors are denied their winnings, and bettors have no legal recourse against them. Colorado licensed sportsbooks offer a security net that’s absent from illegal operations.

But remember, sportsbook winnings are taxable. Bettors report gambling winnings on their tax returns. Sportsbooks also send the IRS a W-2 that details winnings above $600 and wins on 300-1 odds. There’s no way of getting out of reporting sportsbook winnings to the IRS.

Colorado Sports Betting Revenue

Colorado sports betting revenues paint a rosy picture for 2021. Sports betting started slowly during the pandemic but picked up steam when the NFL returned.

October–the NFL’s first full month of games–generated more tax revenue than the first five months combined. November continued that trend, where sportsbooks’ tax bills were almost as large as October, and the NFL made up almost 40% of all wagers. It should make bettors excited to see the financial impact of Colorado’s first sports betting Super Bowl and 2021 NFL season.

Colorado sports betting may slow in spring and summer 2021. But the fall should bring Colorado’s sports betting industry to new heights and beyond. It’ll be our first peek at the peaks and valleys of Colorado sports betting.

How Colorado Compares To Other States

Many states around Colorado haven’t legalized sports betting yet. (Does anyone think Kansas is going to make the leap into sports betting?) But there are other successful states that Colorado is outperforming in a few areas.

For example, Iowa legalized sports betting in May 2019–a year before Colorado sports betting went live. Iowans placed their first wagers August 15, 2019. They beat Colorado by nine months, giving them plenty of time to generate large amounts of revenue. But a peek at November 2020 numbers shows how quickly Colorado sports betting is growing:

Colorado Sports Betting Successes And Failures

Even though Colorado’s sports betting industry is younger than Iowa’s, it raked in $10 million more in gross revenue and almost $250,000 more in tax revenue. Iowan bettors had to create online sports betting accounts in person, while Coloradans didn’t. This allowed Colorado online sports betting to take off and leave Iowa behind. However, Iowa’s in-person requirement went away on January 1, 2021, so it may catch up to Colorado in the new year.

During the wave of sports betting legalization, Colorado has had some clear victories and some hard misses. Here are some of the things they did right and wrong.

Colorado Sports Betting Successes

Colorado took a big step in the right direction by allowing online sports betting and remote registration from the beginning.

About 98% of Colorado’s November 2020 wagers were made online. Not only did the online market have time to grow from the beginning, but bettors in any part of the state could create an account and bet on games they were interested in. Requiring bettors to drive to one of Colorado’s three gaming cities or to Sky Ute Casino would alienate many bettors. Colorado avoided one of Iowa’s mistakes and has stronger financials for it.

Colorado Online Gambling Improvements

Colorado seems to have nailed its sports betting launch. The next step in expanding online gaming would likely be legalizing online casinos. However, they come with more baggage than sports betting.

Putting a casino in every Coloradan’s hand would require controls similar to those imposed by sportsbooks. Tying each account to a single identity would give bettors the same self-exclusion options they have at sportsbooks. The boost in gaming revenue would have to be balanced against the impact on problem gamblers. But Colorado could pull it off if it strategized ahead of time.

Colorado’s Sports Betting Legalization Effort

Sports betting came easily to Colorado. Once the US Supreme Court ruled PASPA unconstitutional in 2018, the Colorado Legislature seemed to go to work shortly after. In May 2019, the Colorado Legislature released Propositions CC and DD to be decided during the 2019 election. The bill passed in a 51/49 split. However, that doesn’t reflect Colorado’s usual 60/40 enthusiasm for gaming.

Taxation Of Gaming Sites

One of the greatest hurdles Colorado’s sports betting bill had to overcome was the language in its opening line. Colorado’s Taxpayer Bill of Rights requires any bill that introduces a new tax on anything to begin with the following words:

“Shall state taxes be increased by…”

The new tax didn’t go to Colorado consumers. It was the 10% levied on Colorado sportsbooks. But a glance at that first line in the ballot box proved consequential. Tax increases are unpopular, and the misconception that Colorado’s sports betting bill was a new tax for ordinary citizens almost killed it at the ballot box.

Colorado Amenable To Gaming Expansion

But Colorado’s true feelings about gambling are evident and gaming measures passed before and after Prop DD. In 1990, Coloradans voted to allow casinos in three cities in a 57/43 split. 30 years later, Coloradans voted to allow its casino cities to set their own game and bet limits in a 60/40 split. They’re amenable to gambling expansion, and sports betting was no exception.

Timeline Of Colorado Sports Betting

Colorado sports betting came swiftly after PASPA’s repeal. Here are the major sports betting milestones from its inception:

• May 14, 2018: The US Supreme Court rules PASPA unconstitutional. States are free to regulate sports betting.
• May 20, 2019: The Colorado Legislature releases Proposition DD, Colorado’s sports betting legalization bill. It will appear on 2019’s ballot.
• November 7, 2019: The Colorado Department of Revenue announces Proposition DD’s legalization. The Colorado Division of Gaming becomes the sports betting industry’s regulatory body.
• May 1, 2020: Colorado sports betting goes live with four sportsbooks: DraftKings, FanDuel, BetMGM, and BetRivers.
• September 8, 2020: The University of Colorado at Boulder secures a partnership with PointsBet. It’s the first time a Division I athletics program has partnered with a sportsbook.
• September 24, 2020: The Colorado Rockies secure a partnership with DraftKings. It’s the first sportsbook partnership the Rockies have ever made.

Colorado Teams

Denver is home to several popular sports franchises. However, Colorado’s university teams have strong followings, too. Here’s everything bettors need to know about betting on Colorado’s slew of sports teams.

Colorado Professional Sports Teams

Most of Colorado’s professional sports teams are based in Denver. And the three leagues that drew the most betting handle are each based in Denver.

Denver Broncos

The most visible Colorado team is probably the Denver Broncos. In 2016, the Broncos won their third Super Bowl championship. It was also the year that Broncos star quarterback, Payton Manning, decided to retire.

The Broncos have been having a hard time since Payton Manning’s retirement. 2017 was one of the worst seasons in Broncos history, and 2018 was similarly difficult. They had a 7-9 record in 2019, and as of this writing, the Broncos are last in their division.

But professional football made up 38.3% of Colorado’s total betting handle in November 2020. It’s the most popular sport for Coloradans to bet on.

Denver Nuggets

The Nuggets are Colorado’s professional basketball team, and they’ve been having a rough season, too. At the time of this writing, they’re 2-4. (Although, they’ve won their 10th straight game against the Timberwolves.) Losing key players to free agency and offseason departures is never easy. But the Nuggets are placing hope in their rookies to grow into the void left behind by their experienced teammates.

4.2% of Colorado wagers in November 2020 were on professional basketball. It’s a step down from professional football’s dominance, but basketball remains one of the ten most popular sports to bet on in Colorado.

Colorado Rockies

The Colorado Rockies fill the baseball void in Denver, and anyone who’s been to Coors Field knows how popular they are. Baseball didn’t crack the top ten most popular sports to bet on in November. But it made up 22.7% of all wagers in September 2020. Bettors will likely have that same enthusiasm for baseball when spring training starts in 2021.

Colorado College Sports Teams

There are two major college teams in Colorado, and they make one fierce rivalry. The University of Colorado at Boulder has a long rivalry with Colorado State University in Fort Collins. (Anyone who was lucky enough to see the annual Rocky Mountain Showdown knows that.)

Both schools have popular football teams. NCAA football betting was almost 10% of all November 2020 betting. College football is always popular, but it could’ve been helped in 2020 by the Buffs’ solid season.

The Buffs go through cycles of stellar performance and subpar play. But with a 4-2 overall record in the PAC-12, the 2020-2021 season seems to be off to a good start. In contrast, the Rams are stuck at a 1-3 overall standing in the Mountain West.

Coloradans can wager on college teams. However, they cannot place prop bets on college games. Colorado’s sports betting bill attempted to protect college game integrity by disallowing wagers that could be affected by an athlete’s choices. It’d be easy for a financially vulnerable student to miss a field goal or two on purpose, then cash in on himself. Rather than solely relying on the schools, the Colorado Legislature shut that door to that behavior. Well, shut it as tight as it could, anyway.  

Other Sports To Bet On In Colorado

Even though it’s not a Colorado sport, table tennis has remained a popular sport through 2020 and early 2021. Table tennis wagers made up 5.4% of Colorado’s betting handle in November 2020. That’s more than professional and college basketball. Table tennis gathered a following when it was one of a handful of sports available during the lockdowns. That following seems to be quite loyal.

Colorado also has a professional lacrosse team, but bettors may not follow the Colorado Mammoths in great detail.

Or at all.

But Coloradans can find even more obscure sports to bet on. DraftKings has a particularly wide range of sports and leagues to choose from. From Turkish Basketball to Herre Handbold Ligaen in Denmark, bettors can find sports and leagues wholly contained in Colorado’s ‘other’ category.

No matter a bettor’s taste, there’s something in Colorado’s market that’ll match their eclectic tastes.

Colorado Sports Betting FAQs

More Resources On Colorado Sports Betting

If you’re curious about the details of Colorado’s sports betting industry, here are some additional resources:

• Supreme Court opinion on PASPA repeal: Why the US Supreme Court ruled in favor of New Jersey and allowed each state to regulate sports betting.  
• Colorado Division of Gaming Sports Betting Rules: These are the rules that Colorado sportsbooks must abide by to earn and keep their sports betting licenses.
• House Bill 19-1327: Better known as Proposition DD, this is the House Bill that Coloradans voted to legalize in the 2019 election.