Following the historic U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to lift the ban on sports wagering, Delaware becomes the first state to take advantage of the new rules. It will move forward with launching full-scale sports betting operation at the state’s three casinos on June 5, Governor John Carney announced in a news release.
Sports bets will be available at exactly 1:30 p.m. Tuesday, June 5, officials say, adding that the options will include wagering on single games and on championships. Delaware-based punters will be able to place bets on hockey, football, baseball, soccer, basketball, auto racing, and golf. In an official press release, Gov. John Carney explained that the state already has full “legal and regulatory authority” to implement new rules regarding wagering on sporting events. This became possible because in 2009, lawmakers passed a sports betting legislation that allowed multi-game parlay bets.
Currently, Delaware was one of the four states that had some form of legalized betting on sporting events. With this move, Delaware becomes the first state in the country to launch a full-scale sports betting operation where you can make wagers on single games, along with the parlay bets. State lottery director Vernon Kirk pointed out that the new system works perfectly because it is not actually new. Only small changes have been made to the existing software, which until now, included only parlay bets, he added.
Once the sports betting operation launches on Tuesday, bettors will be able to place wagers only if they are physically present in one the three casinos in Delaware – Wilmington’s Delaware Park and Casino, Dover Downs, and Harrington Raceway and Casino. But placing bets in person will not be the only option, at least according to the plans. The state is now working on a mobile application that would allow punters to bet from their smartphones using geolocation. Although a mobile app is still in the works and several months away, Kirk believes that is the future of sports betting.
Will It Be Profitable for the State of Delaware?
Officials say that the legal sports betting would bring in new visitors to the state, which would certainly boost various sectors of the economy, including tourism, hospitality, retail and entertainment services. In Thursday’s official release, Gov. Carney said that he was looking forward to seeing the new sports betting operation launch on June 5. According to him, this new type of gambling would add more diversity and more options to Delaware’s current offerings.
Every year, the state’s sports lottery reports that around $46 million is taken in as wagers. But this is hardly the profit made from this industry. The net is around 25 per cent on average, while the revenue is split between the casinos, the sportsbook operator, and the horse racing industry. The final profit for the state is quite modest, as a result. In fiscal year 2016/2017, the state received around $2.2 million, while in 2017/2018, the final profit was significantly more, at $9 million.
The average net win on parlay bets is 25 per cent, but according to experts, it is only 5 to 6 per cent when it comes to betting on single events. Indeed, this is the reason why single-event wagering is much more popular that parlay betting in Europe – because it is much more profitable for the customer, therefore, it is less profitable for the operator. Since Delaware will follow the same revenue-sharing scheme after June 5, it will need to see a significant increase in total handle in order to collect some decent profits.
