The sports industry as a whole took a step back in April as numerous jurisdictions have reported their results. Louisiana’s sports betting also plummeted for the month due to the lack of sporting events that interest bettors across the Bayou State.
Louisiana’s Sports Betting Results for April
Sportsbook operators in Louisiana accepted $208.2 million, which noted a decrease of 10.5 percent from March’s $232.7 million. The state currently has seven mobile sportsbook operators and 15 retail sportsbook locations.
Moreover, gross gaming revenue decreased substantially for the month because the hold rate declined by over 10 percent. April’s hold percentage was below the three percent mark, while March’s percentage stood strong at 13.3 percent.
The mobile sports betting hold percentage was 2.1 percent as bettors placed $186 million in wagers.
The tides have turned as the results favored the bettors in April. Since this year’s March Madness Tournament had quite a few unexpected upsets, March’s hold percentage was expected to be a high figure.
Sports betting revenue for the month of April was $6.1 million, a drop of over 80% from March. The adjusted gross revenue for the month was $5.6 million. Despite the significant decrease across numerous categories, the state was able to collect $2.6 million in taxes.
How Promotional Credits Work in the Bayou State
Since the market’s launch in November, the state has collected $9.7 million. Online bookmakers took advantage of the situation as they deducted $533,415 due to promotional credits. This also noted the lowest total in regard to promotional credits since online wagering began in January.
Each operator in the state is limited to $5 million in promotional credits every year. Currently, these bookmakers are claiming a total slightly higher than $23 million. This leaves just under $12 million for the operators that are accepting bets throughout the year.
The Basketball Sports Betting Handle Took a Major Hit
The Louisiana State Police provides revenue figures for a few select sports. While the Final Four was taking place, the numbers show that plenty of bettors took the Kansas Jayhawks to the National Title game.
In the span of a month, the sports betting revenue numbers for basketball dropped to a total of $24.7 million. Operators went from claiming $12.9 million in winnings in March to paying out approximately $11.9 million from the bets taken.
For the bookmakers, parlay betting is what saved them from paying out more for the month. The revenue from parlay wagers nearly hit $14.8 million. The parlay revenue total surpassed the eight-figure mark for the second consecutive month.
In baseball, the house fared well as operators won around $1.6 million, which ranked second among all the sports categories provided. Brick-and-mortar gaming facilities had a better overall month than their mobile counterparts.
Bettors in these facilities wagered a total of $22.2 million in April and had a hold rate of 10.5 percent, with more than half the $2.3 million in revenue generated coming from parlay bets.
Additionally, operators were just short of $600,000 ahead in the catch-all “other” category, which included golf, hockey, and MMA, among other sports, and claimed just shy of $490,000 in winnings from soccer wagers. Despite the low wagering on football futures, operators ended the month with a $20,008 profit.
