Tennessee Sees a $27.4m Handle in its First Week of Sports Betting

Following the official debut of a regulated online and mobile-only sports betting market in Tennessee on 1st November, the Tennessee Education Lottery Cooperation (TEL) has released the week one numbers and they look pretty good. Based on the TEL report, the Volunteer State managed to collect a total handle of $27.4 million between the 1st and 8th November from the four major online sports betting platforms currently licensed in the state; Tennessee Action 24/7, FanDuel, DraftKings, and BetMGM.

The TEL, Tennessee’s oversight body for sports betting disclosed that from the $27.4 million handle that was collected from sports wagers, the four main sportsbooks in the state paid out winnings worth $23.9 million to players and collected about $2.54 million in adjusted gross income for themselves. Roughly $509K on the other hand went to the state’s tax coffers from the week’s sports betting activity.

Sports Betting in Tennessee Takes Off on a High Note

The regulated sports wagering market in the Volunteer State hit the ground running after registering tremendous numbers from the first day of launch, with a handle worth $5.1 million. From the volume of sports bets wagered on the first day, the state raked in $160,000 in tax revenue, which was an impressive amount collected by the state in a single day. Most of the wagers that contributed to this massive handle were from football, divvied between the National Football League (NFL) and college football on a 3:2 ratio.

After the TEL released the sports betting market report, Rebecca Paul Hargrove the President and CEO of the state’s gamin ombudsman said in a statement; 

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“In our role as the regulator of this industry, we are focused on establishing and supporting a responsible and competitive sports wagering program in Tennessee. These numbers are encouraging as we work to protect the consumer, promote fairness in sports and regulate this new Tennessee industry that provides critical funds for education, as well as local governments and problem gambling services.”

As part of the report, the TEL also indicated that 80% of the $509K tax money that was collected from sports betting will be directed to the Lottery for Education funding, whereas the General Fund for local governments on a per capita basis and the Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services for treatment of problem gambling will take 15% and 5% of the tax collected respectively.

Great Potential for the Future of Sports Betting in Tennessee

With such a great launch, industry analysts project that in the coming months, the Volunteer State is well on its way to garnering over $2 million worth of tax revenue, and that would just be the beginning. Mind you, the TEL has already announced that by the end of the year, three more online sportsbooks will have made an entry into the local market.

If you then consider the fact that not every sports fan in Tennessee could be aware that sports betting is already live, it’s a sign that there’s a lot of room for growth. As such, the licensed sportsbooks in the state are pushing harder to channel in more players. All the four sportsbooks that are operational at the moment are offering some lucrative sign-up promotions to reel in as many bettors as possible. BetMGM is offering an instant matched deposit worth up to $500 on the first deposit, whereas DraftKings is offering as much as $1,000 in bonuses for the first deposit loaded by new members. New sign-ups at Tennessee Action 24/7 are also getting their first deposit doubled up to as much as $100 while FanDuel is offering new players a risk-free bet up to $1,000.

Additionally, the pandemic situation could also be curtailing the size of disposable bankroll that potential players may have for sports beating, meaning that once the Coronavirus is behind us, we might just see a bigger boom in the birthed market. Likewise, Tennessee and the USA at large are currently working with a rather limited slate of sporting activities due to the COVID-19 crisis.

Thus, as soon as things get back to normal, we could see Tennessee becoming a force to be reckoned with in the sports betting world particularly since the state law hasn’t placed any restrictions when it comes to placing wagers on collegiate sports whether in or out of state.