December numbers cap big year in Tennessee sports betting

Tennesseans have enthusiastically adopted legal gambling, according to monthly reports from theSports Wagering Advisory Council, which oversees the industry in Tennessee. Residents wagered $3.844 billion dollars in 2022, including $440 million in December, the highest monthly total reported in the industry’s Tennessee history.

Gambling saw increases in volume during the fall, when pro and college football is in season, and in March, when the NCAA holds college basketball playoffs. December’s high monthly total stayed even with the previous month — sports books cleared $439 million in November — and was up from $340 million in December 2021 and $180 million in December 2020. A handful of operators such as BetMGM, DraftKings, FanDuel and Caesars Sportsbook collect 10 percent of wagers as revenue. The state takes 20 percent in privilege taxes — about $70 million in 2022. 

Lawmakers transferred state authority over the sports betting industry last year. Previously the purview of the Tennessee Education Lottery, the newly created SWAC oversees regulation and licensing as of January 2022. A two-person staff assists SWAC executive director Mary Beth Thomas, formerly an attorney with Nashville firm Waller Lansden Dortch & Davis, and the body’s nine-member advisory board, appointed by the governor and legislature. Numbers have not yet been released for January 2023.

This story was first published by our sister publicationNashville Scene.