TN Sports Betting is Off and Running

Categories: News | Published by: Jordan Sawyer

09/11/2020

Tennessee officially launched sports betting on Sunday, November 1, becoming the 19th state in the United States to do so.

Tennessee also became the first online-only market in the country.

Sports betting officially became legal on July 1, 2019, but it took the state a long time to get things up and running. The Tennessee Education Lottery is in charge of overseeing the new industry, and approving sports betting licenses took much longer than expected.

Tennessee requires a 10 percent hold for operators, and bettors were worried that it would be reflected in the odds. Bettors were pleased on Sunday when the odds listed in Tennessee were very similar to those listed in other states.

Things appeared to go off without a hitch on Sunday morning, except in the case of the Action 247 mobile app. That operator could not launch its mobile app as quickly as it hoped because it was waiting on official approval from Apple.

Former Tennessee Titans running back helped promote the FanDuel brand on Sunday morning in a video shared by the operator. DraftKings Sportsbook and BetMGM were the other two operators that launched early Sunday morning, and those launches were successful.

🚨 BIG NEWS 🚨
We are now officially available in Tennessee for mobile sports betting 🤑
Full details: https://t.co/WVLLxlRScp pic.twitter.com/Oc1l1A49tw
— FanDuel Sportsbook (@FDSportsbook) November 1, 2020

Titans Help Sportsbooks on Sunday

The Tennessee Titans were heavy favorites to beat the Cincinnati Bengals on Sunday, and Tennessee bettors laid big money on the local team. A Titans win would have meant a rough start for sportsbooks, but the Bengals were able to come away with a victory.

According to FanDuel, 81% of the money line handle was one the Titans to beat the Bengals, and 76% of the cash bets on the point spread was in Tennessee. This was a tough loss for Titans fans but a huge win for the sports betting industry.

BetMGM offered Tennessee bettors a refund on their Titans bets as a way to build up some brand loyalty. Bettors were issued a site refund of up to $200 on all single-game Titans bets placed on Sunday.

FanDuel, DraftKings Post Early Trends

FanDuel and DraftKings are expected to become the leaders in the Tennessee Sports betting industry, but neither company provided financial figures from the first day of betting. Each company did share some facts or trends that emerged from Sunday.

The first wager that FanDuel received was a ten-cent bet on the Indianapolis Colts at -2.5. A 20-point victory by the Colts on Sunday paid out at just 18-cents.

The largest wager that FanDuel saw on Sunday was a $5,000 bet on the Buffalo Bills at -4.5. The biggest payout that FanDuel reported on Sunday was a same game parlay that paid out a little more than $13,100. The majority of bets have been placed using a TN sports betting app.

DraftKings reported that the Tennessee Titans brought in the most money and the most bets from the entire NFL slate on Sunday. Florida and Alabama were the top-two schools in both amount of wagers and the amount of money to win the 2020 College Football Playoff.

Check back for more TN sports betting news and the latest sports news in The Volunteer State.