All About Maryland Sports Betting Handle And Revenue

The experts at BetMaryland.com have assembled this guide to explain what we mean when we talk about Maryland sports betting revenue, also known as hold, compared to the sports wagering handle that the state reports each month.

There is an evolving sports betting market in Maryland with many online/mobile operators as well as a number of retail sports wagering options at brick-and-mortar casinos. There is also in-person betting at smaller physical facilities around the state. The number of online sportsbook operators and retail sports wagering facilities is expected to increase in the near future.

The handle is simply the total dollars wagered on sports in the state each month. In Maryland, bettors wager hundreds of millions of dollars each month. After a sports betting law was passed by the state’s General Assembly in 2021, legal, regulated sports betting began initially at retail sportsbooks in five casinos in December 2021. Online sports betting launched with seven operators in November 2022.

The revenue derived from online Maryland sportsbook apps is called hold – that refers to the amount that operators have left after they pay out winning bets. Taxable win is the hold minus promotional wagers and other specified deductions. Each sportsbook contributes 15% of its taxable win to the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future Fund, which supports public education programs.

Maryland Sports Betting, August vs. July

Maryland Sports Betting Handle and Revenue: August 2024

Sports bettors in Maryland wagered $377,381,689 during August. That’s according to figures released Sept. 10 by Maryland Lottery and Gaming. The August handle was a 13.2% increase from the $333,269,669 bet in July.

Not only did the handle increase from month to month, but August’s total was also 43.1% better than the $263,729,559 total reported for August 2023.

Marylanders still prefer to bet online by a large margin. In August, $368,400,947 was wagered through a Maryland sports betting website or app. That was 13.4% higher than the $324,900,680 online handle from July and a 47.1% improvement from the $250,360,244 total from a year earlier.

While betting traffic increased from July, operators reported a drop in revenue. The $37,228,689 in taxable revenue for August was down 10.7% from the $41,693,709 they generated during the previous month. However, sportsbooks more than doubled their performance from August 2023, as last month’s haul represented a 118.5% increase from last year’s $17,037,804.

Again, online apps were responsible for nearly all of the revenue generation. Mobile revenues from August were $36,051,718, compared to $40,689,198 from July (an 11.4% decline) and $16,384,725 from August 2023 (a 120% jump).

With revenues down, so, too, were state taxes. Maryland received $5,584,303, down from July’s $6,254,056 but more than doubling the $2,555,671 collected 12 months ealier. Mobile wagering accounted for $5,407,758 in state taxes for August, compared to $6,103,380 in July and $2,457,709 from August 2023.

With August’s tax receipts, the state has now generated more than $100 million in revenue since legal sports betting started in December 2021 for the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future Fund, which is used to improve educational opportunities across the state. 

FanDuel was Maryland’s top sports betting operator by handle, with the Flutter Entertainment entity taking $160,710,087 in wagers. DraftKings was second with $119,282,449, followed by BetMGM’s $32,179,804, Caesars’ $19,191,557 and Fanatics' $15,973,788.

Maryland Mobile Sports Betting History