While most states will likely see their March sports betting handle and revenue rebound because of the NCAA Tournament, Oregon won’t be one of them.

Oregon does not permit college sports betting on the Oregon Lottery’s Scoreboard app. So even with March Madness going strong, Oregon bettors couldn’t take part in one of the biggest sports betting events. College wagers have to be placed in person at sportsbooks at two tribal casinos, so Oregon couldn't cash in on local interest regarding Oregon State's run to the Elite 8 and Oregon's appearance in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament.

The March sports betting handle in Oregon was $24.1 million, according to figures released Monday by the Oregon Lottery. This is a decrease of 18.7% from February’s $29.6 million. March sports betting revenue (GGR) saw a significant decline to $1.37 million, down 48.8% from February ($2.69 million).

The record for handle in Oregon was January ($34.9 million). In addition to the handle, revenue in January was also the highest figure for a month since Oregon launched sports betting in October 2019.

Oregon is a single-source sports betting market run by the Oregon Lottery, not a good model compared to states with competitive online markets having multiple operators.

The top 5 sports by handle in Oregon, according to the March report: Basketball, $15.1 million; soccer, $2.76 million; hockey, $2 million; MMA, $1.06 million; and tennis, $1 million. Parlay bets saw an increase to $6.5 million from last month’s $5.8 million.

Will House Bill 2127 Help?

Filed in January at the request of Gov. Kate Brown, House Bill 2127 would make the Oregon Racing Commission the new regulator of sports betting, increase the number of operators and allow for mobile and retail sports betting in Oregon.

But HB 2127 hasn’t seen any movement since January, according to the state’s legislative website.

The new bill could open the market to more operators, which would be a improvement over the state lottery’s Scoreboard app.

DraftKings could also be preparing to take over operations of the ScoreBoard app. SBTech, which had been operating the app, merged with DraftKings as part of a SPAC deal last year. Oregon Lottery Director Barry Pack said during a recent lottery board meeting that DraftKings had been in discussions with the lottery, according to published reports.

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