How Kansas is faring compared to other states in sports betting
TOPEKA (KSNT)- As most Kansans know, Kansas City was home to the NFL draft in the month of April.
The state of Kansas accrued about $920,000 from sports betting in the month of April. This is compared almost $911,000 they saw in March.
Cory Thone with the Kansas Lottery joined the 27 News Morning show to speak about how the draft may've impacted the numbers they saw coming in.
"I know that it was definitely a crazy time down there, " Thone said.
The jump from $911,000 in March revenue to $920,000 in April, isn't that impressive.
"It's not that big really," he said. "If you look at some of the months where you had multiple sports like football, baseball; those months were a little bit bigger."
But, having said that, Kansas still performed well for the month of April. Thone said the reason for this might be due to all of the action Kansas has seen sports-wise this past year.
"It ties back into how lucky we are, that in our first year, to have so many cool events around us."
So far this year, sports betting has brought in $3.6 million dollars in revenue to the state of Kansas. When comparing this amount to what other states have acquired, Cory says it's not that simple.
"The important thing to remember is to look at states that are similar to us in size," Thone said.
He expands, saying you wouldn't want to compare Kansas to a state like California, for example, because the population is much higher. But, he said if you look at states similar to Kansas in size, we are doing much better in comparison.
"We are right on track, we are actually doing a little bit better in some aspects but it's still our first year, so there's still that first-year excitement," he said. "We're actually trending pretty well with our projections from last year and we are just excited to move into baseball season."
Thone also mentioned the Kansas Lottery's latest ticketing promotion for the Day of the Dead. For more details on the new promotion, click here.
To hear more about the ongoings within the lottery now, watch the full interview above.