WY Sports Betting Market Off to Slow Start, Industry Expansion Still Planned

• First Month of Wyoming’s Legal Sports Betting Failed to Reach Initial Projections
• Wyoming Features Smaller Sports Betting Market for its Smaller Population
• Despite Slow Start, Wyoming Sports Gambling Market Prepared for Growth

First Month of Wyoming’s Legal Sports Betting Failed to Reach Initial Projections

Wyoming’s initial sports betting revenue numbers are in, and it looks like the Cowboy State’s brand new sports gambling market failed to exceed or even meet pre-launch predictions, a shortcoming that was not totally unexpected given the large cost of launching and the smaller population.

Back on September 1, DraftKings and BetMGM launched in Wyoming, and in that first month of operation, the two combined recorded over $6 million in wagers, far less than the @$37 million per month ($450 million annually) they had initially optimistically predicted.

It works out to be a net loss for the state, but according to industry experts that slow start is partially due to the cost of all the promotions that those sportsbooks put in play in order to help attract their first batch of customers.

That level of deficit in the beginning of this type of operation was expected by David Carpenter, the project manager of sports wagering for the Wyoming Gaming Commission (WGC), who told the press:

The operators said this is kind of a typical thing for the first month, and I’m not surprised.

There are other reasons for the slow start, with the overall size of the market the main one.

Wyoming Features Smaller Sports Betting Market for its Smaller Population

Wyoming is the least populated state in the US with approximately 581,000 residents, so it’s no wonder that the sports betting revenue that those who among them are bettors could potentially generate would be relatively low.

Those low population numbers were worked into their plans, and WGC Project Manager Carpenter and other industry leaders still felt the math worked out in their favor.

We’re a very small market overall, very small populatqion base and this is a high volume type of thing with pretty low margins all in all. We’re never going to blow the doors off this thing.

Those low initial revenue numbers have already begun to rise, and reportedly by the middle of last month, the sports betting revenue in Wyoming had already exceeded the entire prior month, a good sign that the growth of this market there will be exponential.

To meet that expected industry growth in Wyoming, more operators may soon be in play.

Despite Slow Start, Wyoming Sports Gambling Market Prepared for Growth

In the legislation legalizing sports betting in Wyoming, no cap on the number of operators is established which opens that market to other sportsbooks bringing with them a high level of competition.

Joining DraftKings and BetMGM in the Wyoming sports betting market could be FanDuel and Penn National Gaming’s Barstool Sportsbook, two competitors ready to enter the fray, according to Wyoming Business Report.

As WGC’s Carpenter pointed out, more competition helps everyone involved:

I think we just need to continue to get really strong operators and give everyone an opportunity to find the markets they like. Some people might like an operator’s interface or software a little more than others, so hopefully, we have a lot of competition.

The future growth of sports betting in Big Wyoming should be fun to watch – check back for all the latest news and updates on this ongoing story.