Legal sports betting in North Carolina yielded nearly $100 million in tax revenue for the state in its first nine months. Universities in the Tar Heel State are feeling the benefit.
One-fifth of the tax revenue that the 18% tax rate on sports betting yields is distributed equally to 13 University of North Carolina (UNC) System institutions. Figures provided to SBC Americas by the Sports Betting Alliance (SBA) show that between April and November 2024, a total of $21.6 million was transferred to the 13 institutions eligible to receive funding, comprising $1.7 million per institution.
Those public universities are using that money for infrastructural and operational upgrades including work on sports fields like baseball diamonds and tennis courts, as well as indoor practice complexes, sports medicine facilities and more. The UNC Board of Governors also approved in November a plan to use wagering tax revenue to partly finance a new 85,000-square-foot indoor practice facility for Appalachian State University.
“It’s a wonderful thing for us,” Mike Oblinger, UNC Wilmington’s athletic director, told Fox Wilmington. “Anytime you can have additional revenue streams – whether you’re enhancing revenue streams or developing new ones – it’s obviously very important to what we’re trying to do here.”
In the last fiscal year, ending June 2024, UNC System athletics departments received over $800,000 in tax revenue, nearly triple the anticipated amount. In the current fiscal year, the projection is over $2 million.
North Carolina market booms early
North Carolina became the latest state to launch a regulated online sports betting market in March 2024. As often happens when states give wagering the green light, the early results have blown expectations out of the water.
Bettors in the state wagered over $4.3 billion between March and November, laying down $657.7 million in November alone.
That total to-date betting handle has yielded $98.6 million in tax revenue proceeds as of the last count. Some $14.1 million of that was made in November, a monthly record so far. After five months of the fiscal year, the state has raised just short of $50 million in tax dollars from online sports betting.
North Carolina hosts eight licensed online sportsbooks: bet365, BetMGM, Caesars, DraftKings, ESPN Bet, FanDuel, Fanatics and Underdog. The state’s regulator does not break down financial data by operator, but those operators have taken $548 million in gross gaming revenue in the state so far.
