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Tennessee Enjoys Success Online Betting

Tennessee Enjoys Success in Two Years of Sports Betting

By Blake Roberts Founder & Editor in Chief Updated: 12 November 2022

Blake Roberts Founder & Editor in Chief

Blake Roberts is the founder of Betting.US and is currently heading the creative team as Editor in Chief. Born and raised in Morgantown, West Virginia, Blake is a great sports fan, with football and basketball being his favorite. He’s our trusted voice for all betting-related matters.

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The start of this month marked the second birthday of Tennessee’s young sports betting market, and officials were quick to highlight the success the state has enjoyed.

According to reports detailing the first two years of sports betting in Tennessee, the state has welcomed a range of leading sportsbook operators to its online betting market and has exceeded $5 billion in handle in its two years of operation.

While the sports betting market in the state was initially regulated by the state’s lottery, this changed at the start of this year when the Sports Wagering Advisory Council (SWAC) took over. Since taking over, SWAC has reported a series of successes for the state’s sports betting market, and this includes gross revenue records in September.

Benefitting from Football Season

With the football season starting in September, the state has already benefitted from the huge increase in sports betting activity. SWAC reported that the state saw a single-month gross revenue record in September with GGR reaching $46.3 million. This was the first time the state has broken the $40 million barrier for single-month revenue.

Mary Beth Thomas, the SWAC’s executive director, said that the start of the football season had resulted in an uptick in sports betting and that the state of Tennessee was booming when it came to online sports betting activity. Thomas said:

I think that states with online and retail sportsbooks see the majority of their wagering activity online, at least from what I have heard from regulators in other states. Tennesseans seem to really enjoy online sports wagering.

With online sports betting having gained huge popularity, the state has been able to benefit even without retail sports betting.

The global pandemic has helped to boost the popularity of mobile betting further, as many people were confined to their homes and retail establishments were closed temporarily. With sports betting launching during the height of the pandemic, sports fans quickly signed up to start using mobile platforms.

Huge numbers of people have used the range of sports betting platforms since the launch of mobile betting in Tennessee in November 2020. Since that time, sports fans have wagered $5.6 billion in total. During that time, gross gaming revenue has reached more than $500 million and adjusted gaming revenue has come to $435 million.

State Benefitting Via Sports Betting Taxation

Figures also show that up until September 2022, the state benefitted from tax revenue of $87.6 million, which reflects the benefits sports betting has provided to the state as a whole. This means a huge boost to state coffers which have helped public services and local communities.

In addition, there are plenty of major sports events scheduled for the coming months, and this means that the state will continue to enjoy success within its sports betting market over the next few months.

These include major events such as the Super Bowl 2023 and March Madness, and this is in addition to the continued football season, with every NFL game driving a huge amount of betting activity.