Connecticut: Sports wagering hits new high on eve of FIFA World Cup

The $153 million gamblers wagered in October was about $4 million more than last January in the run-up to the Super Bowl, according to data from the Connecticut Department of Consumer Protection.

In the first year of legalized sports wagering, the monthly numbers has averaged $111 million monthly, hitting a low of $73 million in the past 12 months excluding that first October. Foxwoods and its DraftKings sports book have been edging Mohegan Sun and partner FanDuel in most months for total wagering. DraftKings and ESPN have been in discussions about a possible expansion of their initial partnership promoting the sports wagering app on ESPN websites. The Connecticut Lottery has been generating smaller totals in the aggregate with its sports book offered in partnership with Rush Street Interactive's PlaySugarHouse and Sportech, at Bobby V's in Stamford and Windsor Locks, and Winners in New Haven, Hartford, Torrington, Milford, Waterbury, New Britain and Manchester.

To grab more action, PlaySugarHouse is offering an introductory "second chance" option for new accounts. On initial wagers of up to $500, if a new account holder loses the bet, they get another $500 to wager. Only two bites at the apple are allowed.

"Early returns on this have been good," said Andrew Walter, director of legal and business affairs for the Connecticut Lottery, speaking during an October board meeting. "It is a nice, competitive offer which I think over the course of this football season ... will help us grow that market share."

Connecticut is not the only state seeing a boom as the NFL season progresses — in New York, sports wagers eclipsed $1.5 billion in October, about $286 million more than in September for a 19 percent increase in a single month. FanDuel has been consistently ahead of DraftKings in New York for wagering in the Empire State. New Jersey, however, is demonstrating there is a ceiling to the overall sports gambling market. Becoming the first Northeast state to legalize sports gambling in 2018, New Jersey saw its sports wagering total drop 7 percent in October from a year earlier, according to updated figures Thursday.

This weekend, the FIFA World Cup kicks off in Qatar, which DraftKings CEO Jason Robins said represents an unknown in the arena of U.S. sports wagering — but that he is interested to see if it triggers activity to rival wagering for the NFL, the Kentucky Derby and NCAA March Madness.

The 2018 installment of the World Cup generated $136 billion in wagering globally according to FIFA — with the final that year generating $7.2 billion, compared to $7.6 billion for Super Bowl LVI last February as calculated by the American Gaming Association.

"It will be interesting to see what kind of engagement we get," Robins said in early November on a conference call. "We don't have a ton of data on World Cup, so it's really tough to say what to expect from it."

By Alexander Soule