State hoping NFL playoffs continue to attract bettors

After announcing last week that Delaware’s sports betting venture has well exceeded its revised revenue estimates through the first 12 weeks of the NFL season, the state is preparing itself for the playoffs.

Acting Finance Secretary Tom Cook said the state’s racinos will be able to offer a three-game parlay on the two conference championship games and the Super Bowl.

Players will be able to pick teams in the semifinal games, but not for the big game two weeks later. Bettors will simply pick AFC or NFC based on a points spread.

Cook reported the number of bets and the total amount wagered on NFL parlays at the state’s three racinos have grown steadily each week since the season began in September, something he said shows the product is viable.

But as the season heads toward playoff time, Cook admitted the state isn’t really sure what to expect, even after talking with the contractor hired to set odds each week, Brandywine Bookmaking.

“According to our vendor in Vegas, there are less teams [in the playoffs] so you would expect the handle to be lower, by the same token they do see people betting more per wager,” he said. “I think the real answer is it’s our first time and we’ll see how it plays out.”

Ed Sutor, CEO of Dover Downs Hotel & Casino, said he’s also not sure what to expect as the season goes on.

“I don’t know if [playoffs] will bring more, certainly those games area highly anticipated and I would think they would still be popular for sure,” he said.

Through the end of November, the state took in a total of $850,000 from NFL parlays — $350,000 more than was projected.

The total includes a $306,000 loss over the weekend of Nov. 1, when nearly all of the favored teams beat their spreads.

However, the take is far less than the $3 million state officials thought could be reaped from single bets on multiple sports, a dream that died when a federal court ruled Delaware only may offer parlays on NFL games.

Though state officials have called the venture a success in its limited capacity, Sutor said sports betting hasn’t made him any money.

“Although we’re glad we have it, its still not anywhere near what the original projections were,” he said. “If we had it to do over again, we wouldn’t have spent as much money as we did.”
Dover Downs spent upward of $5 million to equip its facility for sports betting, but Sutor said that investment might never be paid off.

“It hardly covers the payroll, it’s not been a windfall,” he said. “I’m not trying to bad mouth it, just to keep things in perspective it’s definitely not a windfall.”

Cook said Sutor and his fellow casino executives knew the risks and were totally on board with the state’s plan to shoot for single-game bets on all sports, regardless of the legal ambiguities.

“They have lawyers also,” Cook said. “And I didn’t hear anyone stand up from the racinos and say, ‘Don’t go forward.’

“As a matter of fact I was on some conference calls where everyone was represented and they felt we were going to be able to offer all types of sports and they were under the belief at that point that we could do single games.”

Sutor said he wants to make it clear to anyone thinking of raising taxes on casinos in the next budget cycle that his casino didn’t rake in the bucks from sports betting.

“We’re always concerned, unfortunately the state of Delaware has a history of hitting us with unanticipated tax increases,” he said.

Email Doug Denison at doug.denison@doverpost.com.