Delaware’s iGaming Business Models The Way For Other States

Legal sports betting is now mainstream with almost 40 states having a regulated market. Ads for top mobile betting apps are all over sports media. Heck, states are even raising taxes on the industry because they misunderstood just how popular it would become (plus they need more money to fund their pockets).

For example, Maryland went from a 15-percent flat tax to now 20. Illinois, in a shocking move, created a tax on every bet. It starts at 25 cents for the first 20 million wagers annually, then increases to 50 cents — again, on every wager placed. The changes in Illinois forced DraftKings and FanDuel to increase their own fees, which of course, the players take on. But here’s the thing: this “tax war” in Illinois could’ve been avoided by doing this: legalizing iGaming.

As it stands, online casinos are only legal in seven states — 32 less than sports betting. In the states where it is live, iGaming is making a killing. That’s the case in Delaware, which was early to the online betting scene. Let’s take you into the state and see what other states could learn from the First State as they fall themselves.

May Was A Blowout Month For Delaware iGaming

The Delaware Lottery released official data on the industry’s performance in May, and things are going well. Really well. The state pulled in $8.3 million in online gaming revenue last month, more than doubling the $3.8 million made in May 2024. That’s a 115-percent jump year-over-year. Pretty monster stuff right there.

However, May’s haul was actually down slightly from April — about 0.7 percent lower, to be exact. So technically they are down there, but we’re not going to make a fuss over a 0.7 percent drop. Not when year-over-year data doubled.

Most of the money came from the usual suspects: video slots carried the load with $5.7 million, while table games chipped in $2.6 million. This is pretty much standard fare across the country, not just Delaware betting. Bettors not only love their slots, but it’s just a more monetizable business. Players rack play more games more quickly, and spoiler altert: that’s an advantage to “the house.”

The Delaware Lottery also mentioned where the bulk of that betting is coming from. The state has three licensed casinos, and only they are allowed to offer iGaming legally. Of the three, Delaware Park took in the most money in May. The casino banked $3.9 million for the month — up a strong 70 percent from last year.

But the biggest mover? That’d be Harrington Raceway and Casino. Their revenue skyrocketed 218 percent year-over-year to $2.7 million. Bally’s Dover didn’t miss out either, climbing 130% to reach $1.8 million in May.

So yeah, Delaware may be small (it’s the second-smallest by land mass and sixth-least populous state), but its iGaming growth is punching way above its weight right now. Let’s see if that momentum holds through summer, when typically, betting increases as more people vacation or have time off.

BetRivers Perfecting Casino Playbook

Here’s what we’ve failed to mention so far about Delaware’s casino success — there’s only one operator in town, BetRivers. This service, which is under the Rush Street Interactive umbrella, has an exclusive deal with the Delaware Lottery to be its betting partner. This goes for sports and casino play.

So all the iGaming revenue we mentioned earlier? Yeah, that’s BetRivers. They operate the casino games in the three licensed casinos — both in-person and online. BetRivers, the casinos, and the state all share in the profits being made.

As for the actual games, here again, it’s BetRivers partnering with operators of said games. Greentube is one of those operators, and that’s partnership is expanding, partly due to the success of Delaware. BetRivers will be bringing Greentube to its Pennsylvania-based casinos. No offense to Delaware, but Pennsylvania is a far more lucrative opportunity given its size (12 million more residents than Delaware).

Coming to Pennsylvania as part of the deal are established titles like Diamond Cash Mighty Sevens, Thunder Cash Voodoo Magic, and A Fistful of Wilds. Not stopping there either — once the paperwork clears, BetRivers is also getting Charming Lady’s Boom, Greentube’s top-performing US title, all to themselves for a while. But here’s the real play: BetRivers landed early access to Diamond Cash Mighty Elephant, which is dropping exclusively on the platform before it hits anywhere else in the state.

We know it sounds like running a casino operation is easy: build it and they will come. But BetRivers shows it takes savvy business acumen to lock up deals and grab market share from other competitors, whether that’s in Delaware or Pennsylvania.

So what’s the takeaway here, not just for other operators, but states not named Delaware or Pennslyvania? There’s a growing demand for online casino betting. Doubling numbers from a year ago proves that. Sooner or later, we expect these states to take notice and legalize it, and take the tax revenue that comes with it. This is a sleeping giant of an industry waiting to be woken up.