Maryland Online Sports Betting Handle Surges 36.8% in July, Win Grows to $54.9 Million

Maryland’s online sportsbooks turned in one of their strongest months yet in July, with statewide win jumping 25.6% to $54.9 million as bettors pushed handle to $489.2 million, a 36.8% surge. The growth extended a run of record-setting months for the state’s mobile betting market, which continues to outpace expectations three years after its 2022 launch.

The July numbers, reported by the Maryland Lottery and Gaming Control Agency, showed a market hold of 11.2% for the month. FanDuel remained the dominant operator in the Free State by a wide margin, generating $23.5 million in win off $187.9 million in handle while holding at 12.5%. BetMGM finished second among the state’s operators with $5.8 million in winnings from $42.6 million wagered, posting a state-high hold of 13.5%.

Caesars and DraftKings Round Out a Crowded Field

Caesars Sportsbook posted the lowest hold of the month at 7.5%, making $1.1 million off roughly $14.9 million in wagers. TheScore Bet also factored into the mix, holding at 8.5% on $8 million in handle. FanDuel and DraftKings continue to anchor the top of Maryland’s mobile market, a pattern consistent with national trends where the two operators combine for a majority share of most legal states. The spread in hold percentages across operators, from Caesars’ 7.5% to BetMGM’s 13.5%, also illustrates how differently each sportsbook’s promotional strategy and betting mix can shape monthly results even within the same state and the same stretch of games.

The July surge did not happen in isolation. Maryland’s handle has been climbing steadily for months, including a 29.6% year-over-year jump in June to $523.3 million, driven partly by a soccer betting boost tied to summer tournament play. Compared to July 2025, when the state saw $364.1 million in handle, this July’s $489.2 million-plus total (state figures put it at $496.4 million) represents growth of more than 36% year-over-year — one of the largest percentage increases among the top sports betting states to report July data.

A Market Still Finding Its Ceiling

The July results follow a record fiscal year for Maryland’s gaming industry as a whole. The state’s Maryland sportsbooks market contributed $132.3 million to state programs in fiscal 2026, up 48.8% from $88.9 million the year before, according to the Maryland Lottery and Gaming Control Agency. Mobile wagering accounted for the overwhelming majority of that growth, with online handle topping $6.79 billion for the fiscal year against a comparatively small retail footprint.

That imbalance showed up again in July, when digital sportsbooks handled the vast majority of wagers while brick-and-mortar sportsbooks at Maryland’s casinos processed only a small fraction of the total. Retail operators pay 15% of taxable proceeds to the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future Fund, while mobile operators pay 15% to the same fund plus another 5% to the state’s General Fund — a tax structure that has made mobile betting the primary engine behind the market’s expansion.

Industry watchers have pointed to a combination of factors behind Maryland’s growth this summer, including expanded in-season betting markets, aggressive promotional pushes from FanDuel and DraftKings, and rising engagement with same-game parlays and live betting. Soccer wagering also played a meaningful role in the broader mid-summer surge across top betting states, with international tournament play drawing new bettors to markets that typically go quiet between the end of one major U.S. sports season and the start of another. With football season approaching, operators are likely to lean further into promotional offers as they compete for market share heading into the fall, historically the busiest stretch of the calendar for sportsbooks nationwide.

Maryland’s growth this summer also fits a broader regional pattern. Neighboring states along the East Coast have reported similarly strong July numbers, with several among the nation’s top ten markets posting year-over-year handle increases in the double digits. That kind of simultaneous growth across multiple states suggests the surge isn’t isolated to any single operator’s marketing push or a quirk of Maryland’s specific betting calendar, but rather reflects sports betting’s continued expansion into a larger share of everyday sports fandom nationwide.

What It Means Going Forward

If the current pace holds, Maryland is on track to post its strongest calendar year yet for sports wagering, building on a fiscal 2026 that already set records for state contributions. The state’s hold percentage — 11.2% in July, below the 12%-plus marks operators posted earlier in the year — suggests bettors are getting more favorable outcomes even as total spending climbs, a dynamic that could pressure margins for operators like BetMGM and FanDuel even as their handle continues to grow.

For now, Maryland remains one of the fastest-growing regulated sports betting markets on the East Coast, with fiscal 2026’s $132.3 million in state contributions and July’s nearly $490 million handle underscoring how quickly the market has matured since legal mobile wagering arrived in 2022.