Delaware’s sports betting market continues to grow month by month in terms of wagers placed, but December’s action came at a cost to the state.
The Delaware Lottery’s financials for 2024 show that in the last month of the year, the state’s proceeds from online sports betting were actually a shortfall of $174,859. That is despite the state posting an all-time record handle for the third month in a row.
Bettors in the First State wagered $28.4 million last month, an all-time monthly record for the state and an amount that was up a gigantic 221.9% year over year.
However, players took nearly $27.9 million in winnings, leaving the state’s sports betting monopolist BetRivers with $592,292 in gross gaming revenue. After the casinos’ commissions, vendor fees and purses paid out to winning horses, the state lost $174,859 for the month.
BetRivers made just $41,169 in net proceeds after all fees, the second-lowest monthly total in Delaware’s six-year history of regulated sports betting.
BetRivers thriving after failed bid to welcome other sportsbooks
Rush Street Interactive’s BetRivers took over from 888 as Delaware’s lone sports betting vendor in 2023 through an exclusive five-year contract. The brand fully launched online sports betting state-wide in January 2024 via its own app and the state’s three online casinos, Delaware Park, Bally’s Dover and Harrington Raceway & Casino.
A bill filed in 2024 that proposed opening up the Delaware market to include other sportsbooks, ultimately led to no action when the legislative session ended last summer without the proposal being passed. HB 365 would have authorized two skins each of the three casinos.
So far this fiscal year, BetRivers has taken $121.2 million in sports bets through six months, making $13.9 million in GGR and earning just over $8 million in winnings.
In the full 2024 calendar year, the sportsbook took $216.2 million in sports bets (up 231.0% year-over-year), made $24.9 million in GGR (a 71.2% rise) and $14.6 million in AGR (up 45.8%) and produced $8.6 million in tax revenue for the state (up 15.0%).
iGaming sees huge surge in 2024
Meanwhile, BetRivers’ iGaming operations proved massively profitable in 2024. The Delaware Lottery reported an all-time monthly record of $7.7 million in online casino net win in December.
In all, the first year of RSI as the sole iGaming vendor in the state yielded $62.6 million in adjusted gross revenue and $37.3 million in tax receipts. That latter sum is nearly four times the $9.6 million the state took in 2023 with 888 as its online casino provider.
