Kansas Betting Handle Downtrend Continues in February 2024

The betting handle took a drastic dip in February in Kansas, falling to $203 million, compared to January this year, when the state collected betting handle of $239 million. However, February also marked the sixth month when Kansas collected over $200 million in betting wagers across online and retail platforms. 

Retail Kansas sports betting took a big hit with four locations – Boot Hill, Kansas Star, Hollywood, and Kansas Crossing – aggregating $1.7 million in gross betting revenue losses. This was plausibly due to the Kansas City Chiefs’ run to Super Bowl champions.

DraftKings Aces Kansas

DraftKings, the provider of Boot Hill’s casino operations, settled $87.6 million in wagers in February 2024, significantly higher than any of its competitors. Of that handle, DraftKings posted almost $2 million in revenue, equating to a hold of more than 6%. At a tax rate of 10%, DraftKings alone contributed close to $200,000 to Kansas in February.

These numbers, posted by the Kansas Lottery, don’t account for promotional spend. DraftKings spent heavily on promos and bonuses, with almost $4 million being used to bring more players to its platform. DraftKings spent more than $3 million on promotional expenses in the sixth straight month.

FanDuel was next with $58.5 million collected in betting handle. However, the entity could not even hold half its biggest competitor with a posted revenue of $886,000. FanDuel spent a little under $2 million on promos.

According to the numbers posted by the Kansas Lottery, three platforms didn’t post any revenue: ESPN BET (Hollywood), BetMGM (Kansas Crossing), and PointsBet (Kansas Crossing). BetMGM collected $20 million in wagers, ESPN BET had $14.6 million in settled wagers, and PointsBet managed $1.6 million in handle. These platforms had negative adjusted gross revenue, which meant they did not need to pay any taxes in Kansas.

ESPN BET’s handle fell sharply from January, by almost 30%, and held less than 3% of its collection. Its promotional spending increased to over $733,000 in February. In terms of hold, BetMGM was even worse off, managing to retain under 2% of its collection as the platform managed just $391,000 from its settled wagers of $20.2 million.

Related Pages: Legal Sports Betting Sites | Missouri Sports Betting | How to Bet on the NFL

Kansas Sports Betting Activity: Year On Year Growth

Kansas’ total collection from the four retail sportsbooks in February was just $503. Total reported revenues from all online platforms were a little over $3 million, with state contributions of $304,000. The Kansas Lottery reported tax collection of $305,494 in February.

Kansas’ operators had a terrible February based on the reported numbers, at least considering the reported numbers in the preceding months. However, the state has made steady progress in a year.

In February 2023, the Kansas Lottery reported zero tax collection from the retail locations. Its total settled wagers was $8.1 million at this time last year, which has increased marginally to $9.1 million in February 2024.

Total betting handle in February 2023 was $185 million from the six licensed operators (DraftKings, FanDuel, Barstool, BetMGM, Caesars, and PointsBet). That number has increased a year later, equating to $193 million, pushing total handle across retail and online to over $200 million.

Month on month, Kansas had a big decline compared to the handle of $239.6 million in January 2024. That number itself was down almost 8% from a strong December. Kansas collected $1.4 million in taxes in January, down from $2 million in tax collections in December 2023. However, the commonality has been a poor showing from the state’s retail sportsbooks over the last few months.

Retail Sportsbooks Beaten Badly

Of the four retail locations, only one reported a slight profit. DraftKings (Boot Hill) collected settled wagers of $612,308 but reported a revenue of just $5,025. Its state contribution was just $503.

ESPN BET’s retail handle (Hollywood) was the highest among all retail locations, with $6.5 million collected. Hollywood Kansas had a total loss of $1.6 million, with a negative hold of 24.1%. That handle increased, a silver lining for the Penn-owned retail venue. It also accounted for over 70% of the total handle in retail locations in the Sunshine State in February.

Kansas Star, owned by FanDuel, collected $1.27 million in settled wagers but did not report revenue or pay any taxes in February because its losses racked up to $88,000, with a negative hold of 7%.