Delaware pleased with sports betting start

First State officials are optimistic after getting the numbers from the first week of sports betting in Delaware since the mid 1970’s.

First State officials are optimistic after getting the numbers from the first week of sports betting in Delaware since the mid 1970’s.

Delaware’s three racinos took over 14,500 parlay bets on week one NFL games worth 257,870 dollars. Acting Secretary of Finance Tom Cook says that’s more volume than any three Las Vegas properties over an NFL weekend. “This type of wagering is done on the day of the game. The major games were on Sunday, so we thought that the anticipated increase was going to be on Sunday and it was. We had a good day that day.” Cook said. “But, whenever you enter into something like this, there’s nothing really to benchmark it against besides Las Vegas.”

Cook also sees evidence of some cross-over effect with the state’s slots and other video lottery games. “Year to date, we were tracking, like many states are, about 6 percent below what we were doing the previous year.” Cook said, “This past week, with the sports lottery in place, we were almost really at the same level we were the year before.  We made up that much ground.”

The state’s official numbers had Delaware slots down 5.7 percent from last year. In week one of sports betting, the difference was just 0.3 percent compared to last year.

“Delaware’s Sports Lottery brought new customers to Delaware Park and significantly increased our traffic over the weekend. As more people learn about this product the greater the potential is for this segment of our business to grow.” said Delaware Park’s Chief Operating Officer Bill Fasy.

The state takes 50 percent of wagers, after payouts to winners and costs of running the game.  40 percent goes to the three racinos.  The remaining 10 percent is directed to help horse racing in the state.