Bettors wasted no time jumping into online sports betting in Maryland.
According to data from geolocation company GeoComply, the state’s first seven sportsbooks triggered 16.5 million geolocation checks over the Thanksgiving holidays.
A geolocation check is performed when players attempt to log on to a platform or attempt to place a wager.
Maryland bettors geolocated 16.5 million times
GeoComply compiled data for the first week of wagering, beginning with Wednesday’s 9 a.m. launch and ending at midnight on Sunday, Nov. 27.
In addition to the 16.5 million overall geocompliance verifications, stats revealed that 3.7 million came from Thanksgiving Day alone.
Moreover, it wasn’t just a few Marylanders participating in the action; these checks were performed on a whopping 477,365 unique accounts.
Thanksgiving weekend dished out a heaping helping of options for Maryland bettors. A number of notable sporting events were on the table, including major college football matchups, games featuring local NFL teams, plenty of hoops action, and the 2022 FIFA World Cup.
Maryland outshines Virginia, Tennessee, Indiana & Colorado
Data from these first five days of action almost doubled what neighboring Virginia saw during this same stretch. Moreover, Maryland performed nearly twice as many transactions through half as many operators (7).
Looking further afield, Maryland’s numbers were more than four times higher than Colorado — a state with a similar population and a mature sports betting market.
Even more noteworthy is that Maryland’s launch data puts them nearly on par with New Jersey. The Garden State, one of the strongest sports betting markets in the country, logged 17.1 million geo transactions during the same five-day stretch. They, however, did so with a population a third larger than Maryland’s.
Maryland’s initial success even led GeoComply to question whether a market at launch will outperform a mature market.
GeoComply SVP Compliance Lindsay Slader noted, in a news release:
“A strong start for the regulated market delivers on the promise of new revenues and consumer protections. Marylanders will continue to ditch illegal offshore sportsbooks for the security of legal, regulated operators that provide player safeguards and tax dollars for the state, just as lawmakers intended.”
In comparison, the first three days of Kansas geolocation checks in early September logged only two million transactions from 136,000 unique users.
Are you curious how many transactions took place in Maryland over Thanksgiving weekend?
Check out our live pin-drop map capturing Maryland’s sports betting activity, where we saw 16.5 million transactions take place over the first weekend 📍#Maryland @GovLarryHogan pic.twitter.com/Io5RrrwPul
— GeoComply (@GeoComply) November 28, 2022
The number of blocked Maryland transactions during that timespan was not revealed.
