Mobile betting eclipses retail in Louisiana

February’s numbers show a first decline for retail sportsbooks.

Regulated sports betting is relatively new to Louisiana but already it is proving to be a hit. This is especially true of mobile betting which was introduced at the end of January this year, not too long after retail sports betting commenced on Halloween, 2021. 

Judging from the numbers that have been recently released – and mirroring performances elsewhere in the country – mobile sports betting is far more popular than its retail counterpart.  

For mobile, February alone saw $211m in wagers written, nearly $17m in proceeds, leading to $2.2m in taxes paid. The most popular sports among bettors also mirrored trends seen nationally: football – and more specifically the Super Bowl – brought in nearly $10m, basketball followed with $5.1m, and then soccer and baseball picked up the slack, with $248,383 and $183,084 respectively.  

The mobile sportsbooks that are currently live in the Bayou State are Caesars, Barstool, DraftKings, FanDuel, BetMGM and BetRivers.  

Retail sports betting took a rather different path. While showing consistent growth from November through to January, February saw a dramatic drop, after the arrival of mobile betting took a major cut out of its market share.  

By way of example: in January, retail sportsbooks had $49m in written wagers, $5.3m in net proceeds, and $533,259 in taxes paid. In comparison, February saw these numbers decline to $27.4m in written wagers, $634,663 in net proceeds, and $65,684 in taxes paid. This marks the first time that wagers went down since gong live. 

While Louisiana’s numbers were off to a strong start, they may not last. Sports handle typically takes a hit after football season, revives for a month around March Madness, and then goes back down again through the summer, until football season starts again.

Cameron Saunders

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