Tennessee Smashes Previous Sports Betting Handle Record for October
The sports betting market in Tennessee is slightly over a year old as of November 1st, 2021. As the NFL crosses the middle of the season and as college football nears bowl season, sportsbooks continue to experience higher volume in the number of wagers placed in October.
Tennessee handle hits a record high for the month of October
Tennessee became the latest state to break the state’s record handle as a plethora of other states across the United States have done so. The handle hit a record of 375.3 million in October, according to the Tennessee Education Lottery. The market in Tennessee has grown over 185.5 percent in the year to date.
The sports betting market reached a new high as the handle is nearly up 46 percent from the 257.3 million that was set in September. This means that consumers wagered approximately 120 million more when compared to the previous month that noting an average of $12.1 million in bets were placed per day. In the month of September, the average per day was eclipsing just around $8.6 million.
Sports betting revenue was reported at $23.3 million, which was just shy of the record set in September, which showed 25.6 million. Still, October is slated as the second most profitable month in the state. It is just the third month the state was able to generate over $20 million in sports betting revenue.
However, the adjusted gross income was higher for October, which was $17.2 million, which translated to $3.4 million in state taxes for Tennessee. With a strong month, Tennessee was able to hit the $2 billion mark for its lifetime sports handle. It became just the fifth state in the country to do so in such a short amount of time.
PlayTenn.com betting analyst, Alec Cunningham, stated; ”With five full weekends of the NFL and college football, baseball’s postseason, and the start of the NBA season, betting inventory was off the charts,…The calendar won’t always be so cooperative, but a maturing market will continue to push Tennessee’s industry.”
Tennessee has a mandatory hold rule of ten percent
Operating in Tennessee may cost some sportsbooks an extra $25,000, which is home to eight approved online operators, including DraftKings, FanDuel, BetMGM, Caesars Sportsbook, WynnBet, Barstool Sportsbook, TwinSpires, and Action 24/7. From January to October, the adjusted gross income hit $152.4 million, which is consistently good for a 7.5 percent hold.
Only four out of the eight sportsbooks held the required number. The four sportsbooks were Action 24/7, BetMGM Sportsbook, DraftKings Sportsbook, and FanDuel Sportsbook. The Tennessee Lottery set this threshold when the industry launched in the state last year.
This is a difficult mark to hit as the national average where sports betting is legal is only seven percent, while markets like Nevada are much lower, which is slated at five percent. The Sports Wagering Advisory Council met on Friday in regards to this issue, but it does not look like things will change. Many legislators have discussed setting the fines at $25,000 per quarter, which sets the total fines at $100,000 per year.
Another sportsbook that has been approved to launch in the state is known as Wagr, which integrates social media and sports betting. The TEL conditionally approved the pseudo-P2P sportsbook will have a few restrictions for the first ninety days.
Users will only be allowed to place $500 per wager and can bet a maximum of $10,000 per player. Consumers can only bet on point spreads, and the maximum amount of wagers must be less than Wagr’s insurance coverage of $5 million.
