After a better-than-expected July, Maine is now facing its biggest betting season of the year.

With the start of the NFL and college football seasons, Maine will offer a full lineup of the biggest sport in gambling for the first time. The state missed the first few months last year before it kicked off on November 3rd.

“The NFL is always king,” said Steven Silver, chairman of the Maine State Gaming Commission. “From September to December, you can realistically predict bets in the $45 million to $50 million range. It’s just a popular time, people are familiar with the apps now. I think that’s a safe bet.”

And Maine residents may have a new way to bet on those games this season. First Track Investments is applying to Portland City Council on Monday for a permit for a sports bar at 55 Market Street, the former site of The Big Easy music club. The facility will apply for a license from the Department of Public Safety to conduct on-site sports betting, according to First Track manager Michael Cianchette. This would make it the state’s first sports betting outlet.

Maine will be banking on strong football numbers to continue its already successful debut season. Through July, the state’s seven-month tax revenue — equivalent to 10% of DraftKings and Caesars Sportsbook’s adjusted gross revenue — was just over $2.9 million, putting the state comfortably within reach of Gambling Control Unit Executive Director Milt Champion’s estimate of $3.8 million to $6 million in annual revenue for 2022.

The numbers were boosted by July, which saw nearly $42.8 million wagered, the third-highest amount in a month to date, and $603,284 flowing into the state, the highest haul in a month to date.

“Now that we’ve had the seasons behind us, it’s clear that there’s a huge appetite for sports betting in Maine, people want to do it and continue to do it,” Silver said. “That’s the other thing that’s always a big question mark. You put this new thing out there, people try it and then continue to use it? And we’re clearly seeing that they do.”

With so much football on offer, Maine could be entering its busiest season yet.

“I don’t know if September will surpass March of last year (which saw the highest bet of $47.6 million), but I wouldn’t be surprised if September was the second-biggest month so far, followed by October and then November, December, January, etc.,” said John Holden, a professor at Indiana University who has written extensively on sports betting regulation.

“People are familiar now, that awareness is already there. They know what they’re getting, they know how to do it, there’s less foreboding.”

Holden said that as the season progresses and games become more important, more bets tend to be placed, and he said the way bets are placed also changes.

“(At the start) we see a lot of different types of bets, we see a lot of futures bets … there are full season bets being made, there are total win bets being made,” he said. “Those kind of disappear as the season goes on, you see a lot more player prop bets, price bets, people trying to hedge some of their now losing bets earlier in the season (with) single game bets.”

Even during the spring and summer, when numbers should have been slowing due to the lack of major sports and events, wagering remained consistent. After March saw a peak of $47.6 million in wagering fueled by the NCAA basketball tournaments, April, May and June saw wagering of approximately $38.4 million, $39.9 million and $39.5 million, respectively, all of which exceeded the wagering totals of February, January and November.

July then surpassed those numbers, and Silver said several factors, including the Olympics, the rising popularity of the WNBA and the state’s summer tourism, may have contributed to the high number.

“I don’t think you can ignore the fact that this is a unique summer,” he said. “We see a lot of money being put on the WNBA. That just hasn’t been the case in recent years. That’s a nice incentive, too.”

However, the fact that it was the third busiest month was “surprising,” Holden said.

“We’re coming off the most popular women’s college basketball season this year that I can remember, which has definitely impacted some of the WNBA betting,” he said. “I don’t expect next year’s July numbers to be able to keep up. I think we’ll see Maine probably keep up with the rest of the country, and we’ll see the football season months will be far bigger than any other period.”

July brought in more revenue for the state as bettors who had done better in previous months lost more than the national average. The hold – the percentage of revenue that bookmakers keep after paying out all winnings – was 8.3% and 8.7% in May and June, respectively, below the American Gaming Association’s 2023 national average of 9.1%. However, the hold rose to 14.1% in July, and Maine’s hold through the first nine months is 10.6%.

“When a state first comes online, you tend to see higher hold rates,” said Dave Forman, vice president of research at AGA. “People are new to sports betting, they may be placing more parlay bets, making more exotic bets. … People really like the parlay bets. They do have a higher hold value, a higher advantage for the sportsbook, but it’s exciting. People like buying lottery tickets.”

Losing bets have not led to a significant increase in problem gambling, says Lori Manson, the problem gambling coordinator for AdCare Maine, an Augusta-based nonprofit that works with the state’s 211 hotline. People who need help can call 1-800-GAMBLER, which will direct them to the 211 hotline.

“Fortunately, it’s still pretty quiet,” she said. “There are no people running to the doors. It’s livened up a bit, but there are still quite a few people.”

Manson said 211 receives up to five calls a month from people saying they have a problem because of online gambling, and an average of 1.14 calls a month saying their problem is due to sports betting.

“It wasn’t as busy as I expected,” she said. “Maine’s Gambling Control Unit was paying close attention to what was going on in other states and used some of the lessons learned, so when sports betting was introduced in Maine, it was inherently safer than in other states.”

Until now, all sports betting in Maine has been entirely mobile, but the state’s retail market could finally open if First Track Portland’s property is approved.

“We have worked closely with several Wabanaki tribes in Maine to identify ways to jointly advance the market in a responsible manner and for the benefit of Maine residents,” Cianchette, the head of First Track, said in a letter accompanying the application to the city. Cianchette did not respond to requests to discuss plans for the facility.

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