Washington DC Sees Betting Dip In April, Trend May Continue

• Washington DC has seen a major betting decline in April.
• DC has struggled to maintain a strong market.
• With Maryland launching sports betting, the DC market may continue to struggle.

WASHINGTON – Washington DC continued its trend of the big month-over-month dips. But while other markets like New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Virginia expect to see this trend shift back with NBA betting and the Olympics incoming, this trend may continue for Washington DC.

Washington DC saw a major decline in both betting handle, as well as a big drop in sports betting revenue as the Nation’s Capital, continues to struggle to gain a strong local market.

The reason why DC may fail to bounce back is due to Maryland sports betting launching soon which will surely pull even more betting fans in the DMV away from Washington DC sportsbooks.

Big Decline In DC

The official revenue report released by the Washington DC Lottery shows that $10.7 million was wagered in April, a 30% decline month over month.

This can be attributed to the end of March Madness betting. Every major market saw a decline with the end of the college basketball betting season.

DC continued its odd trend of retail sportsbooks dominating over mobile operations as $8 million of the total betting handle in DC game from the William Hill sportsbook at the Capital One Arena. GamebetDC, the Washington DC Lottery run citywide mobile app saw just $2.7 million.

The lack of multiple options for mobile betting in DC has continued to be the biggest factor in DC failing to gain footing in a competitive region.

Virginia has a thriving sports betting market with multiple mobile betting operations available. Maryland recently signed the official sports betting bill and will launch shortly.

Maryland is allowing up to 60 mobile sportsbooks with the passing of HB 940 and will surely see an immediate influx of applications from major sportsbooks like FanDuel and BetMGM.

With DC being in close proximity to both Virginia and Maryland, they may continue to lose out monthly with their legal sports betting market.

This may lead to DC legislators deciding that altering and expanding on sports betting is the best option to avoid losing revenue to the neighboring states. If not, the monthly decline in sports betting revenue is expected to continue once Maryland launches.

News tags: Capital One Arena | DC | GamebetDC | March Madness | Maryland | NCAA | Virginia | Washington DC | William Hill