Vermont Generates $21M in Sports Betting Handle in First Full Month

The Vermont Department of Liquor and Lottery (DLL) reported the state collected $21.2 million in sports betting handle in its full first month of wagering, in February this year. With only three online sportsbooks in the state – DraftKings, FanDuel, and Fanatics – February’s wagering tally set the base for the rest of the year.

Vermont’s sports betting history is short after its launch on Jan. 11 earlier this year. In January, Vermont generated $19.9 million in betting handle. In February, the three online books paid back $18.7 million to customers. Adjusted gross sports wagering revenue was $2.3 million. With a revenue share rate of 31.7%, Vermont collected $731,874 in tax. This was significantly lower than January’s tax receipts of $1.1 million.

Revenue also dropped after a strong January, in which the state’s bookmakers generated $3.5 million. This represented a 12% hold in February as opposed to January’s stunning win rate of 22%.

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Basketball Dominates VT Sports Betting

Basketball accounted for $9.5 million in betting handle in February, with the NBA and college basketball in full flow, which was almost half of the state’s total wagers. Tennis came in second with handle of $2.3 million.

Football and soccer both contributed with more than $1 million in handle apiece. Together, those two sports added more than $3 million in betting handle. “All other” sports contributed close to $5.5 million in handle.

Almost 1 Million Bets Placed in VT

While the DLL does not disclose operator-wise handle and revenue breakdowns, its reports indicate the volume of active users and bets placed each month. Vermont’s patrons that resided out of state contributed $6.7 million in handle. There were 19,289 such customers, who combined to place 194,029 bets. The average value of each bet placed was $34.67.

Vermont’s users that resided in the state formed the majority of the collected handle, with $14.5 million. Active in-state users totaled 27,904 with the average dollar value of each bet almost half of out-of-state residents, at $34.67. In total, there were 47,193 active betting users in February with 991,216 bets placed and the average token value of each bet being $21.44.

Vermont Bans College Player Prop Betting

Vermont became the 38th state in the US to legalize sports betting, starting with full-scale operations in January this year. It was also one of the most proactive states to actively decide to ban prop betting on individual players participating in college events sanctioned by the NCAA.

Last month, the DLL updated its catalog to state that “Individual player proposition (prop) bets will not be allowed on any NCAA allowed game offered in Vermont. Proposition bets that cover the entire team will be allowed.” In the last few months, Vermont joined Maryland, Ohio, and Louisiana in banning prop betting on college events to protect student-athletes from harassment from sports bettors.

That ban is not expected to cause much monetary damage to the top-line revenue of the state’s operators considering Vermont is one of the smaller markets in the USA. Yet, the DLL has noticed that sports betting has already surpassed the state’s expectations even though the sample size is quite small.

“There is far more revenue earned and far more gaming than I had expected. We’re also seeing that the majority of the sports wagering activity that’s taking place in Vermont is from out-of-state players,” Wendy Knight, the Liquor and Lottery Commissioner, said last month.

“Out-of-state players have been playing in other states legally, and now they can engage in online sports wagering in Vermont, and they’re doing so. That’s also contributing to the strong numbers that we are seeing.”