PHOENIX — For only the 27th time ever, five big sports leagues are all playing on the same day.
It's called the 'Sports Equinox,' which as you can imagine is a dream day for sports fans. It's also a big day for sports betting, especially in Arizona, which marked one year of legalized betting in September.
Upon reaching the one-year mark of legalized sports betting, the Arizona Department of Gaming released its final monthly report of the year.
"Outside of New York, we were the fastest state to reach a billion dollars of total wagers," said Max Hartgraves.
Hartgraves is with the Arizona Department of Gaming. He says legalized sports betting has exceeded expectations.
"We've seen over $5.4 billion wagered in the state in its first year of legal operations and that's resulted in just over $20 million in privilege fees, $21 million in privilege fees actually to the state from these new games," he said.
The latest figures also show growth. In August, Arizonans wagered more than $360 million. Of that, the state collected almost $2.8 million, which is an 85% jump from July.
"It's in line with what we expected," said BetArizona.com/Gambling.com group analyst, Christopher Boan. "The state of Arizona has consistently over the last 5 or 6 months been the number 6 market in the country. So yeah, I think it's been a successful endeavor so far, anytime you have a state chasing down Pennsylvania which has had sports betting since day one, that's remarkable at this point."
Boan says the state is on track to becoming a strong market.
"Arizona has been a success story for sports betting in America," he said. "It's been a state that's punched above its weight class."
After Thursday's 'Sports Equinox, it's expected there'll be three more in October alone. Arizona will also be the first state to host the Super Bowl with legalized sports betting.
"I'm excited to see how the industry will shape up," said Hartgraves. "It's hard to tell, we got through our first year it was really strong so I'm looking forward to see if the industry will continue to grow year over year."
Up to Speed
Catch up on the latest news and stories on the 12News YouTube channel. Subscribe today.