Monthly reports showing handle and revenue from North Carolina sports betting operators will include more information than the same types of reports in other states.
That’s according to Van Denton, the corporate communications director for the North Carolina Lottery Commission.
In an email to NCSharp, Denton said the NCLC’s monthly sports betting revenue reports would include the amount NC online sportsbooks spent on promotional offers, in addition to their handle and revenue totals. Denton also said that, as of Wednesday, the NCLC had not yet selected a monthly date for these reports to be released.
What other states report promotional spending?
It’s rare for states to report promotional spending. Ohio and Pennsylvania are two of the more notable states to do so, but the majority of the 38 states with some form of legal sports betting do not. As the state with the ninth-largest population, NC promotional spending could provide a solid representation of spending among operators on a broader, national scale.
Like Ohio, North Carolina will not allow operators to deduct promotional spending from their taxable revenue.
Meanwhile, Pennsylvania operators can.
NCSharp projects North Carolina could see as much as $7 billion in handle during its first year. Given the state’s tax structure, that could lead to $126 million in tax revenue. And, again: NC operators will not be able to deduct the amount of money they spend on bonus offers from that taxable revenue.
So the extra information provided by the NCLC will be more for the sake of openness and providing the public with as much information as possible, rather than showing us how much operators will save on their state taxes.
Spending on bonus offers fluctuates throughout the sports calendar
Operator investment in their NC sportsbook bonus offers will be highest around key tentpole events in the sports betting calendar. Obviously, the launch period — which has already seen 5.36 million geolocation checks, per GeoComply — is a big time for promotional spending. But so is the Super Bowl, March Madness, The Masters, and more.
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