Sports betting is booming around the nation — at least, in most states with legal sports betting. Not every state is seeing sportsbooks reap the benefits, however, and in Kansas in particular, March was a strong disappointment. Several Kansas sportsbooks underperformed last month relative to expectations, and some major operators even came away with a big old goose egg in revenue.
Kansas sportsbooks reported a handle of just 1.5% in February, and with March Madness coming up the next, the assumption was that there would be a bounce back. That was the case to a degree — a $50 million increase in handle and $7.1 million in revenue for sportsbooks. That data belies the fact that virtually all of that revenue went to a select few operators.
DraftKings was the leader of the pack in March for Kansas: $98.2 million in handle, $4.7 million in revenue. FanDuel reported just over $70 million for handle and $2 million in revenue, and Caesars Sportsbook $11.8 million and around $250,000, respectively.
The other three Kansas sportsbooks, BetMGM, ESPN BET and Fanatics, all had $0 in revenue in March. And the only one of those three that was not in eight figures for handle was Fanatics; BetMGM and ESPN BET both had higher handles than Caesars.
On the one hand, the three $0 books did not pay anything in taxes last month. On the other, they didn’t pay anything in February either, so they are not exactly proving to be profitable for Kansas sports betting.
It probably did not help that the Kansas Men’s Basketball Team went out of the NCAA Tournament in Round 2. Had they made a deeper run, perhaps there would have been more betting interest from the public — and thus more winning bets for the sportsbooks.
The Kansas Lottery, who runs sports betting in the state, seemed pleased with the results from March, however, so maybe the news is not as dire for the books as it seems.
