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Maryland Sports Betting Handle Up 34% In August, But Revenue Takes A Hit

Maryland’s 12 retail and 12 online sportsbooks combined for $263.7 million in betting handle and $17 million in revenue for August.

Jewelry of Baltimore Orioles Catcher Pedro Severino with Maryland sports betting August 2023
Photo by Julio Cortez / AP Photo; illustrated by PlayUSA
J.R. Duren Avatar
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Maryland’s 12 retail and 12 online sportsbooks combined for $263.7 million in handle and $17.0 million in revenue in August, according to data from Maryland Lottery and Gaming.

While handle was up more than $16 million in August compared to July, revenue dipped by more than $5 million from $22.1 million to $17.0 million.

As a result, tax contributions from the state’s 24 retail and online sportsbooks fell from $3.3 million in July to $2.6 million in August.

Maryland’s retail sportsbooks see handle rise by more than $3.5 million

August was a fantastic month for Maryland’s retail sportsbook handle (amount gambled). The sum of all bets placed hit $13.4 million which was a 34.3% increase over July’s figures.

However, books took home 57.5% less revenue than they did in July, dropping from $1.5 million to $653,079.

MGM National Harbor generated the most handle, while Live! Casino accounted for a little under half of the total revenue for the month.

SportsbookHandleRevenue
Bingo World$814,462.46$69,347.61
Canton Gaming / Canton$1,630.00$1,625.93
Greenmount OTB$60,164.35$10,113.54
Hollywood Casino$937,732.01$46,201.88
Horseshoe Casino$1,290,844.00$0.00
Live! Casino$2,831,935.25$364,413.16
Long Shot's$142,448.71$11,893.77
Maryland Stadium Sub$148,901.25$1,504.49
MGM National Harbor$5,880,892.65$0.00
Ocean Downs Casino$924,813.92$123,830.10
Riverboat on the Potomac$333,385.50$22,056.09
Whitman Gaming$2,105.00$2,092.49
August 2023 Total$13,369,315.10$653,079.04
July 2023 Total$9,886,440.13$1,542,461.54
% Change34.3%-57.5%

Online sports betting handle rises 5.4% but revenue drops

Similar to Maryland retail sportsbooks, online sports betting in Maryland saw an increase in handle but a drop in revenue compared to July’s numbers.

Live! Casino, DraftKings, and BetMGM accounted for all but around $12 million of the more than $250 million in handle and all but around $1 million of the $16.4 million in revenue that online sportsbooks generated.

SportsbookHandleRevenue
BetMGM$20,237,588.53$1,184,182.41
Bingo World$3,459,541.51$128,986.48
Caesars$14,106,357.10$541,491.70
Crab Sports$214,487.27$1,017.96
DraftKings$91,965,959.02$4,430,834.76
Greenmount$180,496.16$12,459.53
Hollywood Casino$5,505,287.19$175,944.96
Live! Casino$104,196,439.54$9,667,350.02
Long Shot's$1,164,397.40$0.00
Maryland Stadium Sub$6,680,743.83$0.00
Riverboat on the Potomac$2,207,579.57$148,082.90
SuperBook$441,366.89$94,373.95
August 2023 Total$250,360,244.01$16,384,724.65
July 2023 Total$237,525,907.62$20,541,757.45
% Change5.4%-20.3%

Promotional payouts and low hold on baseball contribute to revenue dip

When looking at Maryland’s August revenue report, the natural question that arises is: How did sports betting revenue drop if the overall handle rose by more than $31 million?

There were two main factors: promotions and baseball betting.

In August, sportsbooks paid out $8.1 million in promotions, which was nearly  34% of the handle. In July, promotions totaled 14.9% of handle. This is a significant difference since promotions are subtracted from the hold (amount of money the sportsbook kept after payouts) and before the revenue calculation.

Additionally, pro baseball bets jumped nearly $5 million in August, but sportsbooks saw their hold on pro baseball bets drop from $4.6 million to just under $2 million.

J.R. Duren Avatar
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J.R. Duren has covered the gambling beats for more than a dozen states for Catena Media since 2015. His past reporting experience includes two years at the Villages Daily Sun, and he is a first-place winner at the Florida Press Club Excellence in Journalism Contest.

View all posts by J.R. Duren

J.R. Duren has covered the gambling beats for more than a dozen states for Catena Media since 2015. His past reporting experience includes two years at the Villages Daily Sun, and he is a first-place winner at the Florida Press Club Excellence in Journalism Contest.

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