The final weeks of the NBA regular season and the NCAA basketball tournament lifted sports bets in Colorado last month to the second-highest monthly total in the nearly two years since such wagers were legalized.

End of NFL season triggers decline in Colorado sports bets

Bets on professional and college basketball made up nearly two-thirds of the $505.6 million wagered in March, the Colorado Division of Gaming reported Wednesday. The March total was up 14.8% from February and was up 68% from the total bet in March 2021. Only January 2021 had a higher total in the 22 months since the start of legal wagers in Colorado.

Colorado Division of Gaming suspends betting on Russian and Belarussian leagues, events, and players

“Because of the popularity of the NCAA Tournament, sportsbooks count March as the last big spike in action before betting slows down for the summer,” said Ken Pomponio, an analyst for PlayColorado.com, which follows the state’s legalized sports betting industry. “But Colorado sportsbooks topped expectations, considering they got little help from local teams in the tournament.”

Colorado sets record for sports betting in January

The March total pushes the betting handle for the first nine months of the state’s fiscal year to $4.75 billion, up 86% from the same period a year earlier.

Bettors have wagered $6.55 billion since sports betting was legalized in May 2020. Wagers typically slow between April and August before surging when the NFL regular season begins in September.

Hockey, tennis and soccer generated a combined $67.5 million in bets, wagering on other sports totaled $23.1 million, and parlays and combination bets attracted nearly $100 million in action.

Bets on table tennis totaled a record low $1.34 million, likely as a result of state regulators banning bets on Russian and Belarusian sports from the state’s sportsbooks after Russia invaded Ukraine.

Colorado sets record for sports betting in January

The big wagering month brought in $28.2 million in revenue for the state’s sportsbooks, up 38.2% from a year earlier and a 44% jump from February’s total. The March handle also meant the state received $1.31 million in taxes from sportsbooks, more than four times the amount received in February and increasing the total for the first nine months of the state’s fiscal year to $9.29 million.

Those funds are set aside for Colorado water projects.