With Football’s Return, September 2021 Sports Betting Up 66% In DC
The September 2021 sports betting tallies provided a bit of good news for the beleaguered Washington, DC, sportsbook market.
With the return of NFL and NCAA college football, DC sportsbook operators saw a bump in business during the previous month.
In fact, month-over-month, Washington, DC, sports betting increased by a whopping 66.4% from August to September.
A rebound with September 2021 sports betting
Overall, the trio sportsbooks in the nation’s capital collected a handle of $20,706,482.68 on 293,918 wagers.
That represents an average bet size of $70.45.
Overall, that’s also an increase of two-thirds over the $12.4 million that DC sports bettors wagered in August.
And now, as no surprise, DC sports-betting operators again had a massive hold. Led by Caesars by William Hill, which had a hold of 20% (a 78.6% month-over-month increase), all operators combined for an 18.8% hold.
Here’s the full breakdown:
| Operator | Handle | Hold | Revenue |
|---|---|---|---|
| Caesars by William Hill | $16,187,960.51 | 20.0% | $3,240,749.26 |
| GambetDC | $3,681,899.02 | 16.2% | $595,944.76 |
| BetMGM | $836,623.15 | 5.6% | $46,930.05 |
| Totals | $20,706,482.68 | 18.8% | $3,883,624.07 |
Hooray for football season
The summer months are notoriously slow at sportsbooks. With a lighter sports schedule, as well as more summertime entertainment options in the real world, bettors typically let off the gas.
But the end of August and the beginning of September marks the return of football. It’s the most popular sport from a betting perspective, and that was evident in DC.
In fact, Caesars by WH Sportsbook jumped from $10.1 million in wagers in August to $16.2 million in September. That’s an increase of 60%. The retail sportsbook is located in Capital One Arena, and it can also operate an online sportsbook in a two-block radius around the sports venue. However, BetMGM, which has a similar setup at Nationals Park, increased just $90,597, or 12.1%. (Virginia sportsbook users experience a much different setup in Virginia, where Caesars and BetMGM can operate entirely online and across the entire commonwealth.)
GambetDC, the DC Lottery-backed online app that has a near-monopoly on online wagering, increased its handle by 127% last month. After tallying $1.6 million wagers in August, GambetDC took in $3.7 million in wagers during a much-needed improvement in September.
With Virginia’s sports betting market humming along and Maryland sportsbooks coming online (hopefully sooner rather than later), DC has its work cut out. But at least for September, things are trending in the right direction.
Related Articles
