In October, a full slate of NFL and college football games, as well as baseball playoffs and the start of professional basketball and hockey seasons, propelled Colorado sports wagering to a record $491.5 million. 

Colorado betting handle surges in October

The amount for last month was more than 20% more than the previous record set in September and more than double the handle for October 2020, the Colorado Division of Gaming stated Tuesday.

Over a third of the October total, $167.7 million, was wagered on NFL football, despite the Denver Broncos winning only one of five games. With $63.3 million in wagers, NBA basketball was the second most popular sport, followed by college football with roughly $52 million in stakes. Professional and college football wagers combined accounted for nearly half of all bets.

Baseball drew $37.4 million in wagers, followed by soccer, tennis, and hockey, which drew $43.1 million. Other sports wagers totaled $34.7 million, while parlays and combination wagers brought in roughly $90 million.

Sportsbooks paid out $462.8 million in winning wagers, or 94.2 percent, of the nearly $500 million in bets. The record month generated $9.79 million in income for the state’s sportsbooks, more than five times what they earned in September after giving away over $20 million in free bets. The state collected a record $1.25 million in taxes, more than double the amount collected in September.

Colorado voters approved Proposition DD in November 2019, with wagering slated to begin six months later in May 2020. Since then, wagers in Colorado have totaled more than $4 billion. Colorado sportsbooks are taxed 10% on their profits after winners paid and free bets deducted; these funds are set aside for Colorado water programs.

PlayColorado.com is a member of the PlayUSA network dedicated to informing the public about all aspects of the United States gambling business, from sports betting to land-based casinos and lotteries. 

Gambling is a multibillion-dollar industry that employs tens of thousands of people and generates hundreds of millions of dollars in income for state and municipal governments.

PlayColorado primarily focuses on the state’s legal sports betting sector, enabled by a 2019 initiative. The site is devoted to sports betting in Colorado, from the operators and casinos that offer how betting affects Colorado and other United States sports teams.

Quotes From the Press Release

Ian St. Clair, lead analyst for PlayColorado.com, which covers regulated gaming in Colorado, said:

“Five weeks of NFL and college football will always be beneficial to sportsbooks, but having it coincide with baseball’s postseason and the start of the Denver Nuggets and Colorado Avalanche seasons created a perfect storm in October. With the Broncos resurgent and college basketball on the rise, wagering should continue strong in the coming months.”