Maryland mobile sports betting generates millions in revenue: report

Maryland mobile sports betting generates millions in just days

A new report shows that Maryland is raking in millions of dollars from its weeks-old mobile sports betting business. FOX 5's Tom Fitzgerald has a look at the numbers.

MARYLAND - A new report shows that Maryland is raking in millions of dollars from its new mobile sports betting business, which is only weeks old.

According to the Maryland Lottery report, Maryland brought in $219 million dollars from sports betting in November, with 85 percent of that coming from mobile wagering. The report adds that just in the first nine days of mobile wagering alone, the state brought in a total of $186 million in revenue and generated $704,728 in taxes.

The data proves what many mobile sports betting advocates had long claimed – that once mobile wagering went live, it would quickly dominate the sports gambling market in the state.

People FOX 5 spoke with say they are not surprised by the amount of money the state is bringing in.

"It’s not that surprising, it’s very available now online anybody can do it," said one viewer.

Another added, "a lot of people used to go out to D.C. or Virginia, we just unfortunately here in Maryland, were never allowed to do it."

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So what's driving the boom in sports gambling?

Maryland Lottery Director John Martin says it was a perfect storm of big sporting events and big promotions from the mobile sports betting operators.

"We’ve had a very robust sports calendar, that period from November 21st to the end of November, you had four NFL dates, you had World Cup Soccer, you had college rivalry week, you had college professional basketball, hockey," Martin tells FOX 5.

He adds that despite the boom in mobile sports betting, he expects that "at some point the sports books will come back into a more normal range."

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For context, in its first nine days of mobile sports betting, Maryland brought in about a third of the revenue that D.C. and Virginia made in the entire month of October.

This comes as two new mobile sports betting operator were awarded licenses to launch in Maryland on Wednesday – Bally Bet and WynnBET.

Right now, seven mobile sports betting operators are active in the state. They include, Barstool Sportsbook, BetMGM, BetRivers, Caesars Sportsbook, DraftKings, FanDuel, and PointsBet.