The Maryland Lottery and Gaming Control Agency has revealed total sports betting handle for July to be $247.4 million. This includes Maryland’s 11 mobile operators and 10 retail locations.
Retail locations took $9.9 million handle, or 3.6% of total wagers. The remaining 96.4%, $237.5 million was wagered through mobile skins.
Overall hold for the month was 11.4%, with revenue for the month totalling $28.1 million. This is a higher hold month-over-month, up from 10.6% in June. It falls below Maryland’s total margin since MY sports betting legalization which sits at 13.1% overall.
July is another landmark month for tax receipts for the Old Line State. Total tax contributions for the month from both retail and mobile sports wagering were just over $3.3 million, pushing total contributions since December 2021 over the $30 million mark. Each sportsbook contributes 15% of its total taxable win to the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future Fund, which primarily supports public education programmes.
Handle and revenue figures for July include Crab Sports, a local Maryland bookmaker, for the first time as it successfully fully launched in the State. Maryland mobile sports wagering went live in late 2022, and continues to grow into 2023. There’s still plenty of scope for further market entrants, given Maryland continues to report strong handle figures.
2022 and early 2023 policy discussion has been around the expansion of sports betting legislation and ensuring it’s competitive. Although there have been murmurs of a Maryland online casino legislative push, legalization looks far from imminent despite the six commercial casinos continuing to perform well throughout 2022 to post record revenues.