All About North Carolina Sports Betting Handle And Revenue
BetCarolina.com, your home for expertise on all North Carolina sports betting topics, has assembled this guide to explain terms such as handle, revenue and tax collections.
The state launched its legal mobile sports betting market on March 11, 2024. North Carolina has eight mobile operators offering a variety of wagers throughout the state. There are also a few retail outlets at tribal casinos in North Carolina.
To place a wager on the outcome of a sporting event, or a specific statistic within a game (this is known as prop betting), you must be physically located within the Tar Heel State. Like the other 30-plus states with mobile sports wagering, North Carolina uses geolocation technology to ensure that wagers are being placed legally within the state by a bettor who has an account with an online operator.
The companies offering North Carolina sportsbook apps include the major names you have probably heard of, even if you are new to sports betting. BetMGM, Caesars, DraftKings, FanDuel and ESPN BET all have North Carolina online sportsbooks. The other operators as of January 2026 are bet365, Fanatics and Underdog Sports.
Sportsbooks in the state have partnered with various pro sports teams or other entities in North Carolina that hold major sporting events. For instance, BetMGM has a deal with Charlotte Motor Speedway in Concord and Fanatics NC Sportsbook has partnered with the NHL’s Carolina Hurricanes.
You can place a wager with any of those NC sports betting companies by signing up and using your smart phone, laptop or desktop computer to wager.
North Carolina Sports Betting, January vs. December
| Total handle | Revenue (GWR) |
January | $686.923M | $80.339M |
December | $665.908M | $81.515M |
Change | Up 3.2% | Down 1.4% |
North Carolina sportsbooks started 2026 with a mixed bag of results, according to figures that the North Carolina State Lottery Commission reported on Feb. 9.
The sports betting handle (or amount wagered, which the Commission calls “total wagering revenue” in its report) was $686,922,931 in January, up 3.2% in a month-over-month comparison with December’s $665,908,417.
But the gross wagering revenue (GWR) derived from sports betting declined 1.4%, from $81,514,515 in December to $80,338,762 last month.
At an 18% tax rate on NC sports betting operators, that meant the state collected $14,460,977 in taxes, down 1.4% from December ($14,672,613).
The state does not release figures broken down by sport or by operator. The Carolina Panthers went to the playoffs and former North Carolina quarterback Drake Maye led the New England Patriots to the Super Bowl, no doubt boosting statewide betting interest.
The state record for sportsbook handle is nearly $814 million, a mark which was set in November 2025. We’ll see if March Madness drives North Carolina to break that mark, because the NCAA Basketball Tournament is a bonanza for sports betting nationwide and is especially so in this state.
North Carolina Mobile Sports Betting History
North Carolina Sports Betting Handle and Revenue FAQs
Author
Jim Tomlin has more than 30 years of experience at such publications as the Tampa Bay Times, FanRag, Saturday Down South and Saturday Tradition. He now lends his expertise in sports, betting and the intersection of those two industries to BetCarolina.com, among other sites.
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