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A record by the thinnest of margins is still a record. For legal sportsbooks in Colorado, whether they would continue on their record-setting 2023 came down to the wire in August.
Despite the close shave, August 2023 has now outperformed all of its August predecessors in the amount of money Colorado sportsbooks won from players. A trend points to why the new record tally was only marginally better than the previous high.
Bettors keep on record pace in 2023
After bettors set a new record with the amount of money they gambled on sports in Colorado for July, they did the same thing again in August. The money that sportsbooks took in was a new high for the month in the state by a margin of 5.2%.
The books also kept a record amount of that money, winning 8.1% of what they took in. They did that by the thinnest skin of their teeth, however. The difference between Colorado sportsbooks’ win in August 2022 and August 2023 amounted to about $14,000.
July saw a 16.7% increase in win over the previous high. Thus, the current fiscal year’s growth rate in that statistic slowed considerably.
However, the first two months of this year, in terms of the amount of money bettors put down are still solidly on pace to potentially set a new record there.
Getting to a new record for gross revenue would be ideal for sportsbooks. One trend suggests they might struggle to do so.
Parlay bets continue to drop in Colorado
In some places, sports bettors throw together 11-leg parlays and hope in high numbers. That was not the case in Colorado, however, according to the Colorado Dept. of Revenue’s August revenue report.
In August, for example, the share of the amount gambled that parlays represented sat at 17.5%. That’s the lowest such share of the whole for parlays during August since 2020.
Legal sports betting in Colorado was just four months old then. August is no outlier in this regard either. Through the first eight months of calendar 2023, only January and June have seen parlays increase their shares.
While that could point to Colorado bettors tiring of losing their bets, it’s less promising for sportsbooks’ bottom lines. Compared to straight bets, books win parlays at a far higher rate.
If parlays continue to decline in popularity, books might have to deploy other marketing strategies.
