Delaware restaurants score on NFL betting
Expanded parlay card play boosts revenue for state
DOVER, DEL. Delaware’s decision to expand legal betting on professional football games beyond casinos and into bars and restaurants seems to be paying off for tavern owners and the state.
Football parlay card sales were up nearly 40% last month compared with the same period in 2011, according to state lottery officials. Players wagered nearly $263,000 through the final weekend in August, a reporting period that included three weeks of NFL preseason games.
Delaware is the only state east of the Rockies that can legally operate under federal law a sports betting scheme, though the state’s offerings are limited to parlays on three or more NFL games.
State Lottery Director Vernon Kirk said preliminary revenue figures for the start of the regular season show even stronger gains from last year. Total sales topped $2.4 million in the opening two weeks of the NFL season, a 52% increase. Fifteen percent of sales from those parlay cards, three or more bets on games’ outcomes that pay only if all the picks are winners, were from non-casino retailers.
Thirty-one taverns and eateries across Delaware began selling the state’s NFL parlay cards a month ago, less than six weeks after Delaware Gov. Jack Markell signed legislation expanding the outlets for sports betting.
For the people who run those establishments, the increase in foot traffic from bettors is significant, even if the 5% commission that retailers earn on parlay sales is not.
“It has done exactly what I knew it was going to do,” said Paul Ogden, owner of the Famous Tavern chain in northern New Castle County. “It puts, as I call it, butts in the seats. That’s what it’s done for the places.” Four of Ogden’s five locations have sports betting retail terminals installed.
He said the average parlay purchaser isn’t a serious gambler, and that sports betting in sports bars just adds another dimension to the familiar beer-and-football formula.
“This is not for the big-time gambler. It’s for me and you, neighbors
“Not all people like to go to a casino. Some might feel more comfortable doing it at a restaurant.” Jeff Foy, a server at Buffalo Wild Wings in Dover
going to the local pub and, for the heck of it, putting down two bucks,” the minimum bet, he said.
Ogden said he did incur some additional expenses in preparing for sports betting at his bars, including a bill for new subscriptions to an NFL television package that includes live broadcasts of every game.
CASINOS AREN’T FOR EVERYONE
Bobby Pancake owns all six Buffalo Wild Wings locations in Delaware, and four of his restaurants now offer sports betting.
“We feel we are the perfect venue for this product — sports fans, the crowd we draw and the environment we have for football,” he said. “Every week has been an increase in terms of revenue.”
Pancake said his restaurant group decided not to aggressively market the sports betting until his staff had been given a chance to see the system in action, but he envisions it becoming a key part of his advertising.
Jeff Foy, a server at Buffalo Wild Wings in Dover and a frequent parlay bettor himself, said plenty of customers come into the restaurant just to place their bets, and a good number of patrons who come to eat or drink end up filling out parlay cards.
“Not all people like to go to a casino. Some might feel more comfortable doing it at a restaurant,” he said.
The same law that expands sports betting also legalizes online casino gambling in Delaware, which the Delaware Lottery Office administers through the websites of the state’s three casinos.
The law also allows non-casino establishments to offer Keno instant lottery games to patrons, a program the lottery office plans to have in 100 bars and restaurants early next year.
All three components of the legislation are aimed at keeping Delaware a step ahead of neighboring states where gambling is expanding rapidly.
Back in 1977, the NFL sued Delaware after the state launched its first sports lottery a year earlier.
The state supreme court rule that since “chance was the dominant, determining factor,” the sports lottery — which consisted purely of parlays, where bettors choose multiple games in order to win — complied with state law.
That entry into sports betting lasted only one year, however, since revenue fell well below expectations. Still, that allowed Delaware to be grandfathered in — along with Oregon, Nevada and Montana — under a 1992 federal law that bans states from establishing sports gambling.
STATE WINNING TOO, SO FAR
Expanded sports betting, Keno and Internet gambling are expected to generate $7.8 million in new state revenue this fiscal year. Most of that will be used to offset a decrease in the licensing fees the state’s casinos pay. Non-casino sports betting is projected to generate $1.5 million in new state revenue this year.
So far, casino sports betting sales don’t appear to be hurt because of sports betting at bars and restaurants. The Lottery Office reported casinos sold 13% more parlay cards in August compared with a year ago.
“The gratifying thing for us is that there has been not only no cannibalization from the racetracks — we were holding our breath — but their sales have gone up considerably,” Kirk said.
Chief Executive Ed Sutor of Dover Downs Hotel and Casino said he wasn’t afraid of losing business to non-casino sports betting retailers.
“I’m happy it’s been able to produce some additional revenue for the state,” he said. “We’re seeing an increase, too. It has to do with people learning the game. Every year we see an uptick.”
Plenty of football bettors still visit casinos, Sutor said, since they’re the only places players can collect winnings totaling more than $600.