Maryland’s first-week mobile betting stats show how sportsbooks successfully use free bets to lure customers

A minor setback for a major comeback.

Marylanders are beating the books…for now.

In the eight days of November from the time mobile sports betting went live in Maryland until the end of the month, the mobile sports gambling industry had a net loss of about $38 million, according to a Baltimore Banner report.

But that may have been part of the plan.

Maryland bettors wagered $186 million through online apps over the first eight days of mobile sports betting. But a whopping $64 million of that money was promotional free plays. So, more than a third of the money Marylanders used to place bets came directly from the sportsbooks themselves.

Here's your tl;dr on mobile sports gambling in the first 8 days it was operational in Maryland:

$186M wagered
$64M of that was promotional free play
$160M won by gamblers
6 of the 7 apps lost money in those 8 days

Full story:https://t.co/lEs3wUFMEl

— Pamela Wood (@pwoodreporter) December 12, 2022

Promotional free plays are a tactic sportsbooks use to lure new customers in a competitive industry. But once a market matures, they aren’t offered at nearly the same rate as when the sportsbooks first open in a new region. The hope is that customers get hooked using those free bets and come back with their own money in the future.

For sportsbooks, it’s a minor setback with the hope of a major comeback. Six of the seven operational sportsbook apps in Maryland reported losses in the first month. When the free plays dry up, that’s when books expect to see the fruits of their initial offerings.

In Maryland, online sportsbooks are allowed to offer unlimited promotional free plays in the first 12 months of operation, according to the Banner. After that, they can only spend 20% of their profits on free plays.