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Despite several attempted bills and consistent political talk, the state of South Carolina remains one of 11 states without a legal sports betting market.
Most of the top sports betting apps foam at the mouth talking about the potential of legalizing sports betting in some of those illegal states like California and Texas, however, few of them ever bring up South Carolina. But they really should.
New data has come out on how the state’s northern neighbor, North Carolina, fared in 2025. The results? Mind-blowing, which really gets you thinking about what South Carolina is missing out by dragging their feet. Keep on reading, and we’ll give you a clue at just how big the state’s industry could be…
North Carolina Numbers Went Bananas
Missouri sports betting went live in December 2025, but before then, the newest entrant into the industry was North Carolina. The state launched its sports betting product in March 2024 — just in time for March Madness betting. Almost immediately, it was a resounding success.
However, 2025 was the first full calendar year we got to measure North Carolina (2024 was only partial since they launched in March). The results? Off the charts.
Get this, North Carolina bettors spent over $7 billion on bets throughout 2025. Seven billion! That’s a great number already, but even better considering it was only year two of the industry. As we’ve seen with other states, betting participation trends up in early years so 2026 could be even more lucrative.
No doubt, the state was boosted by NFL betting and specifically, the Carolina Panthers. After several years at the bottom of the NFL totem pole, the Panthers finally made the playoffs again. That likely triggered more interest in NFL wagers.
During December (the last full month of the NFL regular season), North Carolina took in more than $651 million in sports wagers. This marked the fourth straight month of doing at least $650 million in the state (this tracks with the start of the NFL in September).
But here’s the more important number: of all the money bet, North Carolina kept a hair above $132 million in taxes. This is the state’s take-home cut after paying out the top sports betting apps like BetMGM or FanDuel.
Ultimately, this is the number South Carolina should care most about. Making nine figures from a brand-new industry is wildly impressive. Not only that, but North Carolina is only taxing at 18 percent — not low, but not high either. Even a marginal increase in the tax rate could lead to more riches for the neighboring state.
South Carolina Could Likely Do Half The Revenue
Yes, the two states might share a border and the same name, but they aren’t a perfect 1-to-1 comp either. The biggest difference between the two? The population.
North Carolina boasts a population of around 11 million. Having a big city like Charlotte helps their cause there. South Carolina has roughly half that with 5.5 million or so in population. So you can probably half North Carolina’s betting revenue and get something more comparable to what a South Carolina sports betting market could do.
Not only that, but South Carolina has fewer sports to wager on. Since they have no major city in the state, South Carolina is void of pro teams in the NFL or NBA, unlike Charlotte. Though, they do have two big college programs — Clemson Tigers and South Carolina Gamecocks — which make up for it.
But the biggest variable to how much money South Carolina could or could not make from betting comes down to that tax rate we brought up. They can charge more than North Carolina’s 18 percent and make up some ground. Or they can price themselves lower, opening the floodgates to apps with a low-tax rate.
You can argue both ways, but… the argument should be had between South Carolina lawmakers, not us. Ultimately, there just hasn’t been enough of a groundswell of support for betting among the key leaders inside the state. That’s how we ended up here.
Prediction Markets Have Launched In The State
Traditional sports betting apps may not be legal in South Carolina, however, prediction markets are fair game. As it stands, these are federally legal. In the last two months, we’ve seen sportsbook platforms launch their own prediction market product.
Fanatics, FanDuel, and DraftKings have all done so. Moreover, all three went live with their prediction products in South Carolina too. Sports “contracts” (not bets) are fully accessible right now inside the state.
If anything, this is just one more reason South Carolina is missing out. They could just legalize real sports betting and collect a tax. But since they haven’t, platforms are side-stepping existing rules and offering betting in a prediction-market wrapper.
So the platforms still make money. Bettors still get access to sports outcomes. The only group that gets zero benefit is South Carolina since they can’t properly tax this transaction. Womp womp womp.
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