Recapping Connecticut’s First Month of Legal Sports Betting

Dave Schwab Sports Betting Expert

3 minute read

Connecticut rolled out legal sports betting in the month of October across three separate phases. The first phase was legal sports betting at retail sportsbooks in both Mohegan Sun and Foxwoods as the state’s two casinos. This initial launch took place on Thursday, Sept. 29.

The next phase was a soft opening by the state’s three online sportsbook operators. This list includes FanDuel in conjunction with Mohegan Sun, DraftKings as an operating partner with Foxwoods and SugarHouse working with the Connecticut Lottery.

The soft opening of online sports betting through each operator’s website and mobile app lasted from Oct. 12 through Oct. 19. The gloves came off for the final third of the month and the early numbers were rather impressive.

Connecticut’s total sports betting handle for the month came in at $54.6 million. The revenue generated from that betting volume was $4.9 million to reflect a healthy hold rate of nine percent.

The state’s cut of this first month was $513,000 million based on the 13.75% tax rate. Connecticut also rolled out its online casino gaming platform in the month of October. Online gaming was able to generate $1.2 million in taxes over the same time frame.

Connecticut’s Department of Consumer Protection released a monthly report highlighting these positive results. State Governor Ned Lamont added the following comments:

“This first revenue collection for our state reinforces the process and approach by my administration when it came to ensuring our sports and iCasino platforms worked seamlessly for consumers.”

He went on to add:

“We worked tirelessly with our casino and state partners to ensure Connecticut consumers would have positive user experiences across platforms and that is exactly what these results illustrate.”

Connecticut has taken an all-inclusive approach to legal sports betting. Working with its tribal gaming partners, both the Mohegan and Mashantucket Pequot Tribes can offer retail and online sports betting and casino games.

The Connecticut Lottery is the third operating partner offering the same lineup of legal online gaming options.

James Gessner is the Chairman of the Mohegan Tribe. He added the following thoughts on the current gaming situation in the state ahead of October’s launch.

“It will allow us to not only offer these new products to state residents but it will also in turn help protect Connecticut jobs and generate additional tax revenue to benefit the state and local municipal budgets, as well as our tribe’s members. We’re excited to take this step, and we look forward to a full launch in the days ahead.”

Connecticut will not be the biggest market for legal online gaming in the US market. However, this is a key state due to its strategic location. With New York’s anticipated launch legal online sports betting early next year, the Northeast corridor will easily be the biggest region in the country.

Written by Dave Schwab, our US Sports Betting Industry Expert. You can learn more about our author's expertise here.

Dave Schwab

Dave Schwab has been covering the sports betting industry for the past 12 years as the main focus of his specialty marketing company for online content. This endeavor followed a previous career in the field of sales and marketing in the wholesaling sector.Most of his weekly pieces focus on the rapidly expanding legal US sports betting industry. However, he still does extensive work covering betting angles that can provide a competitive edge to avid players. Dave believes that it is always a challenge to take past results and current form to try and correctly determine a future result. Sports brings out the unpredictability in what should be a fairly predictable outcome based on the stats, facts and recent trends in a particular matchup. More from Dave Schwab