Bettors wagered a total of $543 million in December, the first month of legal sports gambling in Missouri, according to new data from the Missouri Gaming Commission. Factoring in payouts and promotional bets, sportsbooks reported total losses of nearly $21 million for the month.
Those losses are, in part, due to the over $125 million given away in free bets and other promotions. Joseph Weinert, executive vice president of gambling policy consultancy Spectrum Gaming Group, said companies use promotional bets to compel customers to download their apps.
“There's also a fight for market share,” Weinert said, “and I'm sure that Missourians are getting bombarded with advertising in every medium possible, and that will continue unabated for years.”
The state received $521,200 in tax revenue from sportsbooks in December. The reason there was any tax revenue at all was because some operators generated taxable revenue in the first month. Bet365 reported the highest total, with $3.8 million, while Penn Sports Interactive reported over $227,000.
Those numbers were outweighed by the largest reported losses. DraftKings and FanDuel reported losses of $16.9 million and $7.2 million, respectively. Since they did not have any taxable revenue, they did not pay any taxes to the state.
Jan Zimmerman, chair of the Missouri Gaming Commission, said promotional bets are nothing new.
“The staff has dealt with promotions from the casinos for years — ever since gambling started in the state of Missouri,” Zimmerman said.
According to an analysis conducted by gambling industry consultancy Eilers & Krejcik Gaming, Missouri had a higher average amount wagered per user in its first month than most other states that have recently debuted sports betting. Weinert attributed this to Missouri launching sports betting during the NFL season, which he said is the most profitable sport for wagering.
Weinert and Zimmerman both said the Super Bowl this Sunday could be a big driver of more promotional bets. That could lead to another month without taxable revenue for some Missouri sportsbooks.
“You can bet that the Super Bowl is going to be a huge promotional opportunity for a lot of these platforms,” Zimmerman said.
Correction: This story and its headline were updated to reflect the total amount bettors wagered with Missouri sportsbooks in December. A previous version of the story cited the amount wagered through mobile sportsbooks as the total amount.
