For the first month of the year, the Volunteer State’s eight active sportsbooks reported more than $385m in wagers, up 83% from January 2021. This surpassed Tennessee’s previous record, having reached $375m in October.
Gross revenue, meanwhile, amounted to $36.2m, up 47% year-on-year, though when accounting for promotions, this drops to $29.1m. From this, $5.8m was generated for state and local coffers.
However, these figures do not include last Sunday’s Big Game betting action. On this event alone, Tennessee sportsbooks collected $23.1m, up from last year’s $15m handle. Moreover, operators enjoyed a successful Super Bowl, winning $3.4m, an almost 15% hold.
Alec Cunningham, an analyst for PlayTenn.com, attributed January’s healthy handle to a particularly busy NFL calendar, and expected high betting volumes going forward.
“The Super Bowl is always going to bring significant action, but five weekends of football in January that included an extra week of the NFL’s regular season, and an expanded playoff, was a particular boon for sportsbooks,” he said.
“With the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament just ahead, sportsbooks should continue to see high betting volume numbers before seasonally tapering off in the spring.”
Eric Ramsey, an analyst for the PlayUSA.com Network, commented on Tennessee’s Super Bowl betting performance, calling it “underwhelming” — though he said sportsbooks’ high hold percentage offset this somewhat.
“Super Bowl betting volume was somewhat underwhelming, but sportsbooks made up for it by winning a high percentage of those bets,” remarked Ramsey.
“Regardless, Tennessee sportsbooks made a significant leap forward during the NFL season, adding and improving features like same-game parlays, in-game betting and prop bets. Those efforts paid dividends during the Super Bowl.”
