Louisiana Sees 21% Boost In Betting Handle Compared To Last Year

Recently released figures showed that Louisiana enjoyed a 21% boost in its sports betting handle in June, compared to the same month last year. While this is a positive trend overall, it was actually a fall of over 17% compared to last month and represents the lowest betting handle in the state since August 2022.

There was $160 million taken in sports bets in Louisiana in June 2023. which completely outstripped the $132.4 million taken in June 2022. Much of this sudden increase is thought to be down to the success of Louisiana State University in the College World Series.

While there are over a dozen other states that let people bet on in-state college sports, Louisiana’s decision to permit such a kind of betting proved timely due to the success of LSU in the diamond.

However, such popularity could have proven costly for sportsbooks in the Bayou State. This is because the figures showed that Louisiana’s online sportsbooks lost $1.7 million in baseball bets during June.

This meant that the total online revenues from sports betting in the state was just $11.3 million for the month which was a fall of $3.5 million compared to May. Such figures had a knock-on effect to the tax revenues with just $1.7 million in taxes collected in June compared to the $3.5 million of the previous month.

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A positive trend for Louisiana sports betting

While the sportsbooks in Louisiana took a revenue hit in June, the fact that more people were betting on sport in the state will have been taken as a positive.

Online sports betting was only legalized in the Bayou State in January 2022, but figures released by the Louisiana Gaming Control Board suggest that 91% of all bets in the state are now taken via a betting app.

The first full year of sports betting in the state proved to be enormously successful with $32 million taken in revenues in the whole of 2022. While this was boosted by the presence of the Super Bowl in the state, it looks like such success was not just a temporary blip. This is because Louisiana has already proved to be hugely attractive for sportsbooks, and many more could be joining the fray.

There is the capacity for up to 41 sportsbooks to operate within the state, and Louisiana is already home to many industry heavyweights such as BetMGM, Caesars, DraftKings, FanDuel, BetRivers, WynnBET and  Barstool.

Such is the popularity of sports betting in the Bayou State that many online sportsbooks are seeking to enter the competitive scene. As well as major European betting brands such as Betway and Betfred, it looks like ClutchBet and Fox Bet are stepping up their bids to join in the action. Plus with Golden Nugget reportedly making moves to offer its own brand of sports betting, it looks like things could be getting even more interesting when it comes to sports betting in Louisiana.