After five months of declining wagering in the Green Mountain State, the streak was finally broken in August when the handle increased 19% from July.
Sluggish Summer
Vermont’s mobile sports betting industry launched in January of this year, and the early returns were promising. However, the NFL and college football seasons were winding down before the Super Bowl drummed up plenty of betting in February.
Although college basketball’s March Madness is also a beacon for betting, Vermont’s handle began to slow and continued to drop over the next five months. Sluggish summer months in the sports betting industry are nothing new to markets all over North America, and Vermont was certainly no exception.
However, with MLB playoff races heating up and the beginning of preseason NFL football, August often spells the end of the sports betting drought with a full slate of NFL and college football regular season games looming in September. And such was the case again this year as Vermont’s Department of Liquor and Lottery announced its handle increased 19% compared to July, with $11.3 million in accepted wagers.
Yet, the hold or win percentage dropped precipitously from 13% in July to just 7.5% in August, resulting in diminished revenue despite the increased betting activity. Mobile sportsbooks generated only $856,000 in August, with $273,000 collected by the state, compared to $1.1 million in sportsbook revenues in July.
Out-of-state bettors increased by 23% in August while in-state residents rose by 7%, but when it came to the handle, the locals bet 32% more than they did the previous month while out-of-staters remained the same. In terms of average volume, visitors bet an average of $34, while Vermonters wagered just $24 per bet.
Good Beginnings
Despite the dog days of summer dampening betting activity in Vermont and throughout the nation, the launch in January portends better-than-expected results from the state’s perspective. After launching on January 11th, 2024, the data showed that over those three remaining weeks, the handle was a whopping $20 million, with the average bet being $23 per wager. Nearly 850,000 individual bets were placed in January, with more than half of those bets placed by non-residents.
The state’s haul was $1.1 million in January, which was far above expectations, according to Liquor and Lottery Commissioner Wendy Knight.
“There is far more revenue earned and far more gaming than I had expected,” she says. “We’re also seeing the majority of the sports wagering activity that’s taking place in Vermont is from out-of-state players.”
“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,” Knight says. “That’s also contributing to the strong numbers that we are seeing.”
And now entering the most popular betting season on the calendar, Vermont will enjoy the benefits of a full NFL and college football season of revenue where handles are high and so too are the revenues. It will be interesting to see if the reality still exceeds the projections after one year of sports betting under the state’s belt.
