Colorado Bettors' Love for Table Tennis is Still There

Colorado saw its sports betting market eclipse the $500 million mark for the fourth time in its history during the month of November 2022.

The Colorado Division of Gaming announced last Wednesday that the state’s sports bettors wagered a total of $553 million in November 2022.

That amount marked a 4.9% increase from the previous month and was also 16.2% better than the November 2021 betting handle of $475.4 million.

The state collected a total of $2.58 million worth of sports betting taxes. That amount represented a 10.8% increase from the previous month. November 2022’s total sports betting taxes collected were also 30.2% better than the amount generated during the same period last year. Year-to-date sports betting taxes are at $10.8 million which is nearly double the $5.4 million total from a year ago.

NBA Carries Colorado in November 2022

Basketball was the most bet sport in the state for November with a total handle of $142.1 million, including $141.0 million wagered online. Football came in second with $135.2 million in total bets, including $1.2 million worth of bets placed at retail sportsbooks. Meanwhile, NCAA Football and NCAA Basketball followed with handles of $48.0 million and $38.9 million, respectively while baseball was just 9th at $4.6 million in total bets but that was because the World Series ended on November 5th.

It did not come as a surprise that the NBA carried Colorado legal sports betting in November. The Denver Nuggets are currently the top team in the NBA’s Western Conference with Nikola Jokic gunning for a third straight MVP award. On the other hand, Russell Wilson and the Denver Broncos have performed terribly in the 2022 NFL season which may have turned off bettors.

What was surprising however is that a total of $6.0 million were still wagered on table tennis which was 6th overall and higher than MMA which registered only $3.2 million during the month of November. Colorado’s crush on table tennis is well-documented but with the COVID-19 pandemic already behind us, its continued presence in the market still baffles sports betting experts.

From Russia, With Love

Colorado’s legal sports betting industry became legal on May 1, 2020, when the sports world was still shut down by the COVID-19 pandemic. During the first month of operations, table tennis was the most bet sport in the state with $6.5 million worth of bets. With not much competition, it had more wagers than the next four sports on the list combined. But with many sports returning later that year, Colorado’s crush on table tennis was supposed to fade, but it didn’t.

By December 2020 however, table tennis was still the 5th most bet sport in the state with $10.9 million wagered. State year-end figures revealed that Colorado sports bettors wagered a total of $63.5 million in table tennis from May to December 2020. That numbered even ballooned to $111 million in 2021 with sportsbooks taking in between $6.89 million and $11.8 million in table tennis handle each month during that period.

The war in Ukraine slowed down table tennis betting in the state with only $1.3 million worth of bets during March 2022. But just when many thought that it would continue to plummet or even go away, table tennis betting i back at $6 million for November and maybe there to stay for good in the Centennial State.