RALEIGH, N.C. — March sent sports betting in North Carolina into a frenzy, but an expected summer slump meant bets dropped off by the hundreds of millions. 

For many sports enthusiasts, when sports betting became legal in the state, they were ready to finally get to bet on their favorite North Carolina teams. 

“Once you’re able to take advantage of those and kind of learn the rules, it makes it pretty easy to have some fun with it,” said sports fan and bettor Daniel Legge.

Legge has enjoyed all things sports from a young age, playing, watching, betting and even officiating games. The sports fan lived in states prior to North Carolina where betting was legal for many years and took full advantage of the promos from sports books apps in March. 

“One of the things when I gamble is I do look for the promos. I try to find something I know different sports books will offer like a 25 or 30% boost on a parlay or bet on a certain team. And you can get different dollar amounts. Obviously, as a gambler, you want to find value and those promos offer a lot of value at times,” said Legge. 

According to the North Carolina State Lottery Commission, in March, there was more than $202 million in promo wagering revenue. The number dropped to about $12.4 million in July.

“For me personally, I’ve I placed a lot less bets since there’s not nearly as many promos,” Legge said. 

The summer sports betting slump was expected with basketball and football out of season and some sports like baseball can be trickier to bet on. 

“It’s something where you don’t really get as much consistency as some of the other sports. Like basketball, you’ll see a player get hotter, or football receivers going off a few weeks in a row, whereas in baseball you might find one or two players who are just having a couple of good weeks,” Legge said. 

Daniel Legge looking at some of the sports book apps. (Spectrum News 1/ Sydney McCoy)

Without major betting sports in season, gamblers using their own money in North Carolina has also dropped from more than $456 million in March to almost $328 million in July. 

Although professional and college regular season games are only days away, Legge said he is starting to see the promos appear more often.

“It feels like they’re starting to ramp them up a little bit for deposits to kind of get people ready. But at the same time, it’s not nearly the same magnitude as you saw at the beginning when they launched the sports gambling,” Legge said. 

Legge said regardless of what shade of blue or red you cheer for, North Carolina will soon have a lot more games to bet on. 

“Specific schools people would be, you know, kind of seeing over? Absolutely. Well, there are there are people who will bet on their favorite team no matter what. Even if they might not win, they might play the long shot odds. I assume that people would spend more money gambling based on where we are with how many schools there are,” Legge said. 

North Carolina’s highest wagering month was April, the same month North Carolina State Universities Men and Women’s basketball teams made it to the Final Four of the NCAA Tournament. Big wins for the Wolfpack and money for the state, with almost $649 million total wagers and more than $536.4 million in amounts paid as winnings.