Tennessee’s sports betting market had a fast start on November 1, 18 months after legalization with the launch of four sportsbooks, including BetMGM, DraftKings, FanDuel and Action 24/7.
It outshone Colorado in November and was nearly as active as Indiana, both markets of similar size.
There are no official figures yet from the Tennessee Education Lottery Corporation (TELC) but figures from GeoComply indicated 13,278,318 transactions for Tennessee in November, compared to 10,148,006 for Colorado, 15,323,810 for Indiana and 53,904,907 for New Jersey.
A transaction is indicated each time a sportsbook user’s location is checked by GeoComply, which provides this service for the providers.
The Tennessee Education Lottery reported that the handle for November 1-8 was about $27 million. The books kept about $3.1 million of that in winnings with the state charging 20 percent tax on the adjusted gross.
This means the state’s November betting handle was as much as $135 million. The launch was assisted by the fact that it happened during the NFL season. Even so, the state is expected to pass the $200 million monthly handle mark by next spring.
According to Tina Hodges, an owner of Action 24/7, the only Tennessee-based sportsbook provider, interviewed by News4:“ Once we got out the first week and once we got both of our apps live, I could tell every day was just growing in momentum.” She added, “The number of dollars bet is going up every day. Every weekend is bigger than the previous weekend. Our registrations are growing every day.”
Action 24/7 started with a website and recently added Android and iOS apps. Hodges, who believes herself to be the only female bookie in the U.S., added, “We’re also one of the only, if not the only sports books that started from scratch. Most other people have partnered with a casino or have land-based operations.”
