All About Maryland Sports Betting Handle And Revenue

The experts at BetMaryland.com have assembled this guide to explain what we mean when we talk about Maryland sports betting revenue, also known as hold, compared to the sports wagering handle that the state reports each month.

There is an evolving sports betting market in Maryland with many online/mobile operators as well as a number of retail sports wagering options at brick-and-mortar casinos. There is also in-person betting at smaller physical facilities around the state. The number of online sportsbook operators and retail sports wagering facilities is expected to increase in the near future.

The handle is simply the total dollars wagered on sports in the state each month. In Maryland, bettors wager hundreds of millions of dollars each month. After a sports betting law was passed by the state’s General Assembly in 2021, legal, regulated sports betting began initially at retail sportsbooks in five casinos in December 2021. Online sports betting launched with seven operators in November 2022.

The revenue derived from online Maryland sportsbook apps is called hold – that refers to the amount that operators have left after they pay out winning bets. Taxable win is the hold minus promotional wagers and other specified deductions. Each sportsbook contributes 15% of its taxable win to the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future Fund, which supports public education programs.

Maryland Sports Betting, January vs. December

Sports betting operators in the Old-Line State started the new year with a bang. Sports betting om January accounted for the fourth highest single-month tax bill in the three-plus years that Maryland sportsbooks have been operational; there were also strong returns for total handle and taxable win )or revenue).

Overall, Maryland’s total sports betting handle of $618,824,226 represented a 2.9% decrease from the sum of $637,301,168 that was collected in December, which was also slightly less than the Old-Line State record of $639,867,400 set in November.

Of that total, $601,253,356 came from online wagers (down 2.9% from December’s total of $619,458,099), according to figures that Maryland Lottery and Gaming reported on Jan. 10.

As for revenue, mobile operators chipped in $53,892,757, which was up 24.7% from the $43,214,346 collected in December.

The total revenue (mobile and retail combined) also rose 26.6%, from December’s total of $43,405,101 to $54,964,079 last month. That illustrates how solid of a hold (13.3%) operators had in the first month of the year, with $536,728,622 in combined winnings paid out against that total handle for the month.

That surge in betting revenue allowed Maryland sports betting operators to chip in more to the state’s bottom line, sending $8,244,612 in taxes to the Old-Line State after only collecting $6,510,765 in December, also a 26.6% jump month-over-month.

When broken down by market share, FanDuel Maryland Sportsbook was top dog in the state during January, at $278,507,815. DraftKings Sportsbook was next up at $178,893,704, followed by BetMGM ($51,040,014), Fanatics ($33,425,572) and Caesars ($29,365,085).

Maryland Mobile Sports Betting History