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

Nikhil provides an update on sports betting revenue declines in February for the states of New Hampshire and Delaware.
New Hampshire State House, Concord, New Hampshire, USA. New Hampshire State House is the nation's oldest state house, built in 1816 - 1819.
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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.

About the Author
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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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