Don't Mess With Taxes

A panoramic view of the University of Colorado's Folsom Field. The school has a deal worth more than $1.6 million dollars with an Australian sportsbook. (Photo by MECU via Wikipedia Commons)

I hope your college football teams did better than mine did yesterday.

I also hope that if you placed any bets on any National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) games, your selections netted you some extra cash.

My aforementioned reference to the sad play of my teams is why I don't bet on sports, college or pro. But many people have been wagering legally on amateur college competitions since the Supreme Court OK'ed that option back in 2018.

Colorado sports deal bet paying off: Numbers are still being crunched to determine just how much betting on college athletics will mean to state tax offices, but one university's bet already has paid off nicely.

"The first college sports deal with a gambling company outside of Nevada is worth $1.625 million, and includes tax-write offs," according to a Bloomberg Tax report.

The University of Colorado is the school. And its multimillion payoff is this weekend's By the Numbers figure.

Bloomberg's Sam McQuillan says the five-year cooperator sponsorship deal between the Boulder-based CU and the Australian based bookmaker PointsBet — whose U.S. headquarters will be in nearby Denver — is the latest of myriad ad deals between sportsbooks and teams or leagues.

It also is the first collegiate pact of its kind, says McQuillan.

19 jurisdictions betting on sports wagering revenue: Colorado is one of 18 states and the District of Columbia that have taken advantage of the High Court ruling allowing legal sports betting beyond Nevada.

The Centennial state, says McQuillan, has collected almost $745,000 in total taxes from legal sports wagers since it approved such betting in March. In 14 states last year, the tax take on the wagers was $118 million.

Under the deal with the Colorado school, PointsBet will be able to promote itself as a "Proud Partner of the Colorado Buffaloes" across a wide range of sports advertising, sponsorship and promotional material.

The University of Nevada and London-based bookmaker William Hill have had a smaller marketing deal in place since 2017.

On the professional level, the National Football League last year cut deals with sportsbook partnerships for 21 teams.

One bet is sure. There will be more such deals.

You also might find these items of interest:

• Reporting gambling winnings, other income on Schedule 1
• COVID-restricted NFL resumes. So does betting on the sport
• It's Jersey, baby, as Garden State in May passed Nevada as sports betting hub 

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