Delaware: The First State was Second State for Sports Betting
It was a half-century ago that Delaware authorized multi-leg parlay wagers on NFL games - and while the experiment ended after just one year in 1976, that was long enough for Delaware to gain a partial exemption in the language of the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992 (PASPA).
Then in 2009, state lawmakers passed a sports betting law that would permit all forms of sports betting, just like Nevada already had. A legal challenge to that expansion of gambling was successful, however.
That meant that Delaware residents and visitors were limited to betting as they did in 1976 - only on NFL parlays at the state's racinos and countless bars, restaurants, and convenience stores that let customers fill out paper cards.
The first legal bet in the state hit 3 weeks after PASPA was overturned
Once the U.S. Supreme Court ruling on May 14, 2018 invalidated PASPA, it took Delaware regulators only three weeks for then-Gov. John Carney to make the first legal straight-up bet outside of Nevada (he chose the Philadelphia Phillies to defeat the Chicago Cubs that night).
That quick pace enabled Delaware to launch nine days ahead of neighboring New Jersey, which had spent six years battling in several federal courts against the NFL and four other major sports organizations.
Delaware’s sports betting revenue pales next to New Jersey
In 2025, Delaware generated $20.7 million in sports betting revenue compared to $116.9 million in revenue in New Jersey. The latter state's larger population is only part of the reason for the discrepancy.
New Jersey also offers a highly-competitive marketplace for wagering on sports, with daily fantasy sports giants like FanDuel leading the way and traditional casino industry powers like Caesars and MGM also promoting sports betting to their large customer databases of gamblers.
Delaware taxes the state's sportsbooks 50% of the gross revenue at the three racinos and for its BetRivers Sportsbook that is a subsidiary of Rush Street Interactive and managed by the Delaware Lottery.
BetRivers became the lone mobile sportsbook in the state in 2023, signing a five-year contract. But consumer awareness of the product is far lower than the sports betting industry leaders enjoy in other states, which contributes to that lower annual revenue figure for Delaware.
Online casino gaming's long history in Delaware
The race to be the first state in the U.S. to offer full-fledged iGaming also was won by Delaware over New Jersey in 2013, once again by a single week.
Those two launches came in November of that year, with Delaware again being more nimble thanks in large part to a ban on competition that simplified the launching process.
Casinos gain more revenue than sportsbooks
The $110 million in revenue for iGaming operators in Delaware in calendar year 2025 is more than five times what the state's sportsbook gained in the same 12 months.
Even more encouraging - for state tax collectors, at least - is that the second half of 2025 saw a significant rise in revenue. After the three online casino operators never reached the $9 million monthly revenue total from January through June, the operators did so every month for the rest of the year.
In fact, new Delaware iGaming revenue records were set in 2025 in July, August, September, October - the latter at $11 million being the first eight-figure month in state history - and then again in December at $11.8 million.
BetRivers' control over iGaming apps
The correlation between state approval to have the BetRivers platform operate the state's iGaming apps and the instant rise in revenue is obvious. The first full month of BetRivers management of the apps - January 2024 - featured a tripling of iGaming casino revenue from the prior month. That rising trend still had not peaked as of early 2026.
Delaware Park racino's iGaming app typically takes in about half the state's total each month, with the rest being split fairly evenly between Bally's Dover and Harrington casinos.
About two-thirds of Delaware iGaming revenue comes from slot machine-like video terminals - about double what the operators collect from table game play. The state’s retail casino revenue also is led by Delaware Park.
