New Hampshire, Delaware See Declines in Sports Betting Handle for February

Sports wagering handle continued to fall in New Hampshire in February 2024 as operators raked in $62.2 million compared to $73.3 million in January. February’s handle broke a streak of four consecutive months when New Hampshire collected sports betting handle above $70 million from October last year to January this year.

Gross gaming revenue came in for February at $6.6 million, with the state collecting $2.8 million. This was another sharp decline when compared to January, when the state took in $4.45 million, the highest single-month collection since July 2023.

Betting Handle Downtrends In New Hampshire

Handle and sports betting revenue, and by association with the state’s collections, have been trending down for a few successive months. After a quiet start to the current financial year, betting picked up in September 2023, with handle spiking to $66.8 million. The state’s subsequent collection was $2.68 million.

That figure rose again in October, moving to $77.8 million with gross gaming revenue of $8.7 million. Handle for the next two months, November and December, stayed consistent at $78.5 million and $78.75 million, respectively. Despite collecting higher betting handle in December, gross gaming revenue dropped to $7.65 million instead of November’s $8.22 million.

In January this year, New Hampshire sports betting handle dropped to $73.3 million, but gross gaming revenue for that month was at a record high of $9.8 million. In February, the state’s downtrend continued with a sharp decline of 15% in handle.

Online Betting vs Retail Betting

As with all other sports betting states, online betting is far above retail betting in volume. In February, online betting generated $55,8 million in handle, $5.9 million in revenue, and 2.6 million in state collections. 

February was also the first in five months when retail sports betting accounted for less than $10 million in handle. The betting handle was $6.4 million from retail locations with revenue of just $610,535 and $274,741 in state collections.

The year-to-date figures for New Hampshire indicate a growing appetite for sports wagering in the state but a discernible gap in handle in the NFL’s offseason months. In eight months, New Hampshire has generated a betting handle of $513.2 million, with $54 million in revenue. Of that, $23.8 million has been contributed to the state of New Hampshire.

Delaware Sports Betting Handle Drops

Delaware sports betting handle also dropped to $13.8 million in February, which was 2.8% less than January. Still, year-on-year growth in Delaware has been impressive, with February’s handle up by more than 2.3 times that of February last year. Revenue for sports betting in February was $560,449, significantly behind January’s revenue of $1.8 million.

Retail sports betting had a difficult month, racking up losses in excess of $125,000. In terms of retail locations, Delaware Park accounted for the majority of the handle, with $473,000 in revenue, followed in the far distance by Harrington Raceway with $133,989 and Bally’s Dover with $82,984 in revenue.

The iGaming sector performed well, with a 14.7% increase in revenue ($3.9 million in February) from January’s gross gaming revenue (GGR) of $3.4 million. Of that, video lottery games earned operators $2.8 million in revenue, with the remaining $1.1 million from online table games.