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Mobile, app-based sports betting has revolutionized the gambling market, driving a surge in handles across the ever-increasing number of states legalizing it over the past two and a half years. With COVID whacking the budgets of many states who have been on the fence over sports betting, the potential for lucrative tax income is likely to shift the balance toward deregulation. Even Canada is now jumping on board, adjusting their laws on sports betting to capture a larger share of betting within legal channels.

Related ETF: Roundhill Sports Betting & iGaming ETF (BETZ)

Ever since May 2018, following the Supreme Court’s reversal of regulations on sports betting, allowing each state to decide whether to permit sports-related gambling, revenues have exploded. In the two year period after the ruling, more than $20 billion had been bet.

As MRP noted earlier this month, revenues are set to explode across the US following election day, which saw sports betting initiatives from a number of states on the ballot, including Maryland, South Dakota, and Louisiana. By the end of next year, 26 of the nation’s 50 states are expected to have legalized gambling on sporting events.

Many cash-strapped states recovering from massive spending during the COVID lockdown may expedite plans to legalize sport betting so they can collect a share of the dough via taxes and fees. Last year, sports betting taxes, at rates ranging from 2% to 51%, brought in $118 million across 14 states.

As Bloomberg writes, that tax haul will continue to rise as the industry’s total US revenue climbs toward $5 billion in 2023, according to a November analysis from Eilers & Krejcik Gaming. And if the remaining 24 states legalize revenue, they say, it could top $19 billion.

September’s sports betting handle for the US came in at an all-time high of $2.86 billion. US Bets expects October to smash that figure with at least $3 billion-worth of wagers.

Currently, the strongest individual sports betting market in America is New Jersey, which set a new national record during October. Wagers topped $803 million, a 64.6% increase over the $487.9 million handle of October 2019.

More than 90% of the state’s handle came from online and mobile sportsbooks like DraftKings and FanDuel (owned by Flutter Entertainment), the number one catalyst in the ongoing sports betting boom…

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