New Hampshire’s sports betting industry is off to a strong start.
The New Hampshire Lottery has revealed that more than one million sports wagers have been placed in the first six weeks of legal sports betting in New Hampshire.
Since the Lottery and its partner, DraftKings, launched online sports betting operations on December 30, 2019, more than $28.6m has been wagered by 36,923 unique users.
New Hampshire’s one millionth bet
According to the New Hampshire Lottery, the one-millionth wager was placed on February 8 and at the time of writing, the total number of bets is over 1.15m.
Governor Chris Sununu said: “When it comes to sports betting, New Hampshire is carving out its status in granite as New England’s premier destination. Players have already placed more than 1.15 million sports bets since the New Hampshire Lottery launched sports betting and with March Madness right around the corner, sports betting’s momentum shows no signs of dissipating. That’s great news for New Hampshire schools, as all sports betting profits directly benefit education in New Hampshire.”
Charlie McIntyre, executive director, New Hampshire Lottery said: “Sports betting represents a natural evolution for the New Hampshire Lottery, and we have a responsibility to maximize revenue to benefit our schools. Next up is March Madness! Yet another tremendous opportunity to continue capitalizing on the pent-up demand for sports betting.”
Sports betting in New Hampshire
In July 2019, New Hampshire became the second New England state to legalize sports betting. Land-based, online and mobile sports betting is legal under the state’s law which allows the New Hampshire Lottery to award licenses to 10 land-based venues and five online and mobile sportsbooks.
At the end of November, DraftKings was awarded an exclusive contract to offer sports betting after being selected through a competitive bidding process.
Under the agreement with the state lottery, New Hampshire will receive 50% of the operator’s sports betting revenue. This will help support the Lottery’s mission to generate funds for education in the Granite State.
So far, six cities in New Hampshire have approved land-based sports wagering. During the fall elections, the cities of Berlin, Claremont, Franklin, Laconia, Manchester and Somersworth, voted in favour of land-based sports betting. New Hampshire towns will get the final say on land-based sports betting during Town Meeting warrants in spring 2020.
