Delaware’s legal sports betting market got a swift boot up the backside in September thanks to the kickoff of the new National Football League season.

This week, the Delaware Lottery (which oversees gambling in the state) reported that September’s total sports betting handle hit $16.8m, a significant improvement over the $7.7m the state’s three licensed racinos-turned-sportsbook-operators – Delaware Park, Dover Downs and Harrington Raceway – reported in August.

Delaware Park claimed the largest slice ($11.6m) of September’s betting handle, leaving Dover Downs and Harrington with relative crumbs ($3.2m and $2m, respectively). The state’s ‘net proceeds’ from betting – which counts still-pending wagers as revenue – totaled $3.15m, up from just $707k in August.

The betting handle total doesn’t include the Lottery’s parlay sports betting product, which was in operation for years prior to the state launching single-game wagering in June. The parlay product reported handle of $6.4m in September, from which the state netted a return of around $2.2m.