The sports betting online company Tipico has selected Colorado as the site for its new technology hub, which it said will bring as many as 441 jobs to the state over the next eight years.

Colorado beat out finalists Texas, North Carolina and Georgia for the hub. Started in Europe in 2004, Tipico has a 42-person office in Hoboken, N.J., and recently launched its sports betting product in the Centennial State.

Colorado voters approved sports betting in 2019. The state's casinos can apply for licenses for physical or online sportsbooks and pay a 10% tax on net proceeds, with a majority of the money going to the state's water plan.

"This move proves what we already know: Colorado is the best place to live and work and 441 new jobs will be created in Colorado thanks to this voter-driven decision," Gov. Jared Polis said in Wednesday's announcement about Tipico Sportsbook.

Colorado House Speaker Alec Garnett, a Denver Democrat, sponsored a bipartisan proposition on sports betting that was placed on the ballot. Online betting began in May 2020 and generated $8 million tax revenue in its first year, according to state officials.

The 441 potential jobs are expected to pay an average of $96,315, which is 128% of the annual average wage in Denver. The jobs will include software development, cloud infrastructure, native and mobile app development, product management and data engineering, as well as operations, marketing, finance and customer service positions.

The state approved giving Tipico up to $7.5 million in job growth incentive tax credits over eight years, according to the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade. The company started its search for a location by looking at 100 U.S. cities.

"From the world-class universities and collaborative technology community, down to the well documented high quality of life in the state, every metric during our nation-wide search pointed us right to Colorado," Adrian Vella, CEO for Tipico US, said in a statement.

Tipico is the leading sports betting provider in Germany. The Tipico Group of companies employs more than 1,800 people worldwide and another 4,200 in an associated franchise network.