Arizona Sports Betting Taking Off

The Arizona Department of Gaming has finally announced the December sports betting totals, becoming the last state to release this report. December produced some impressive results for the state and it could set the stage for a huge year in 2022. 

 

The total sports betting handle for the month was $499.2 million, moving just past the record of $486.1 million that was set in October 2021. The total from December was an increase or more than seven percent from November, and NFL betting had a big impact on the total. 

 

Both retail and mobile sports betting are legal in Arizona, but it has been mobile sportsbooks that are seeing the majority of the action. The mobile betting handle for December 2021 was $494.5 million, which was another record for the state. 

 

Despite the massive jump in handle, the sportsbooks in the state were not able to produce a jump in revenue, and those numbers actually went in the opposite direction. The sports betting revenue was just $17.3 million, and that was a big drop from the $31.9 million that came in during November. 

 

Arizona Sports betting officially launched in September, just in time for the 2021 NFL season. There are 18 operators that have been approved for a sports betting license, with those licenses going to Native American tribes and professional sports teams with more on the way over time. 

 

DraftKings Leading the Way

Nearly all of the biggest U.S. operators have entered into the state of Arizona, but it is DraftKings that has emerged as the leader. DraftKings posted a sports betting handle of $146 million for the month of December, giving it a pretty substantial lead.

 

FanDuel Sportsbook was next on the list with a total handle of $131 million, and BetMGM came in third place at $103.7 million. Caesars and Barstool came in fourth and fifth place on the list, but they produced much smaller handle totals than the three leaders. 

 

Arizona Sports In the Top 10

Arizona Sports betting is still relatively new in the state of Arizona,  but the state has already become a clear threat in this industry. You can learn more about the betting landscape in Arizona or any other state at this link.

 

But back to Arizona, the total sports betting handle of nearly $500 million put Arizona in sixth place for the month of December. 

 

New Jersey and Nevada actually posted a total handle of more than $1 billion for that month, and Illinois and Pennsylvania were up near the top of the list as well. Arizona came in just behind the state of Michigan ($514.6 million) and well ahead of Indiana ($463 million). 

 

Moving forward, Arizona and Colorado should be competing for business in that part of the country, but it is Arizona that has taken the lead. Colorado had a total handle of $461.4 million in December 2021. 

 

In the United States, the sports betting industry posted a total handle of $7.35 billion in December 2021, falling short of the record of $7.54 billion that was set in October 2021.

Stay tuned in for more information about how Sports Betting is changing the excitement for sports.