Louisiana sportsbooks took a hit in March, despite the NCAA Basketball Tournaments. The latest figures show that handle was up in the Pelican State, but monthly growth was low compared to other parts of the U.S.
Key takeaways
- Revenue down thanks to winning parlays
- Handle up only slightly despite March Madness
- Retail operators still struggling
March Madness is usually a great event for sportsbooks, with big upsets and a ton of games. However, Louisiana's legal sportsbooks may not have been celebrating.
The Louisiana Gaming Control Board reported that sportsbooks in the Pelican State accepted $386 million in wagers for March, a slight increase from $381.2 million handle from February.
This 1.2% monthly growth compared to other sports betting states is quite low.
One reasonable explanation is the lack of upsets during the NCAA Tournament. Bettors usually parlay favorites in the first few rounds and this year they came through.
For the most part, parlay losses (by bettors) provide a majority of the sportsbook revenue in any given month. But in March, parlay losses were nearly cut in half.
Year-over-year there is some good news and bad news for Louisiana.
For mobile sportsbooks, their yearly handle grew by 13.1%, and over the past two fiscal years there has not been a drop in action. When given the choice between a higher handle or higher revenue, most would take the latter. But, in March the numbers were not so great for operators.
After promotional offerings and paying out winners, the books reported $27.8 million in adjusted revenue.
This is a steep drop versus February’s $47.5 million.
Looking back to March 2024, revenue shrunk roughly 21%. The difference came from the hold percentage.
March 2024 was 10.5% but this year it fell to 7.3%. This is the second month since December 2023 where sportsbooks' hold percentage was in single digits.
Here is the breakdown of the how much the mobile sportsbooks won by category:
| Market | Mobile Revenue |
|---|---|
| Parlay | $15.7 million |
| Basketball | $6.3 million |
| Soccer | $440,000 |
| Baseball | $236,000 |
| Football | $116,000 |
| Other | $4.8 million |
Retail operators still struggling
March is supposed to be the last gasp of action before a continuous drop off in wagers, since now there are no more college sports or NFL games, but the brick and mortar locations saw a decrease in bets. Their $25 million is the lowest since August 2024 and as betting slate gets thinner, things will only get worse until the fall.
Revenue is also an area of concern. Including March 2024, there have been seven months of single-digit hold and year-over-year the money earned by these operators declined by 36%.
