Connecticut Sports Betting Handle Drops Despite Promising Trends

Connecticut endured a tough month in February with sports betting handle dropping to $162.7 million after a strong start to the year. That broke a streak of three consecutive months when the Nutmeg State recorded sports wagers of more than $200 million each, starting from November last year into January this year.

Connecticut’s handle dropped by almost $40 million after registering $202.6 million in wagers in January. This drop, like most other states, coincided with the end of the 2023-24 NFL season. Operators are required to pay 13.75% of gross gaming revenue (GGR) to the state of Connecticut as tax.

FanDuel Narrowly Beats DraftKings in CT

FanDuel, through its partnership with Mohegan Digital, recorded $79.6 million in wagers with $72.5 million paid out back to customers. After canceled bets and monthly resettlements, FanDuel had a positive balance of $6.4 million in February. FanDuel managed to register gross gaming revenue of $5.3 million with payment of $735,294 to the state.

DraftKings was not too far behind its largest competitor with wagers of $63.4 million collected and $57.4 million paid out, resulting in an online sports wagering profit of $5.8 million. After promotion deductions and federal taxes, DraftKings’ bottom line for February was $4.8 million in the green with a payment of $664,292 to the state.

Fanatics, the only other operator in the state through its partnership with CT Lottery Corp (CLC), managed to accumulate $12.4 million in wagers with $11.2 million paid back to patrons, accounting for an online sports wagering win of $1 million. After deductions and federal taxes, Fanatics paid out $121,390 in taxes on gross gaming revenue of $882,833.

Almost all metrics in February fell well short of January’s strong results. FanDuel picked up a betting handle of $96.5 million in January with gross gaming revenue of $10.9 million and a tax bill of $1.5 million to the state. DraftKings also paid out more than $1 million in tax in January on a GGR of $8 million. In total, the Connecticut Department of Consumer Protection reported that the state collected $1.5 million in tax from online sports wagering from the three operators.

Fanatics has had an interesting start in Connecticut after announcing the partnership with CLC in December last year. “We have been impressed with the Fanatics team, their aggressive entry into the US sports betting market, and we are excited to see how they redefine the sports betting customer experience here in Connecticut. CLC anticipates notable market share growth as a result of this partnership,” Greg Smith, CLC President and CEO had said last year.

Sports betting handle has remained quite constant for Fanatics, with wagers of $12.6 million in December and January followed by only a slight dip in February with $12.4 million in February despite other operators suffering a significant drop in wagers.

Connecticut Sports Betting Handle Trending Positively

The growth trajectory of the Connecticut sports betting space has historically been slow but has picked up pace in the last few months. The state had reported just $91.3 million in wagers in August last year, which was followed by an inflection point in September in which wagers almost doubled to $181 million.

The Nutmeg State finished last year with a betting handle of more than $200 million ($205.7 million in November and $212 million in December), taking the total wagers to $1.87 million in 2023. With a hold of 11%, Connecticut’s operators managed revenue of $182.2 million, resulting in the state collecting almost $20 million in tax.

Those metrics continue to remain strong in 2024 despite a slight drop in betting handle in February, plausibly due to the NFL’s offseason. Over the first two months of this year, Connecticut has managed $365.3 million with just three online operators.

CT Retail Sports Wagering Revenue Drops

CT Lottery Corp recorded $7.1 million in wagers in the retail sports betting sector in February, down from $9.1 million in January. That broke CLC’s streak of five successive months with a handle of more than $9 million, between September last year and January.

CLC, which encompasses payments from Arooga and all other Sportech retail locations, had GGR of $521,903 in February from retail sports betting with a payment of $71,762 to the state.

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About the Author
Nikhil Kalro

Nikhil Kalro

Nikhil Kalro covers the sports betting industry and revenue reporting at Gaming Today. Much of his work analyzes state revenue information, including betting activity and revenue for individual states and sportsbook operators. In addition, Nikhil provides news updates on the gambling industry itself, including product launches and legal issues. Nikhil’s previous experience includes five years with ESPN.

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