Louisiana retail sportsbook revenue tanks to all-time low in April

Louisiana’s sportsbook operators took just $208.5m in wagers during April, a month-on-month decline of 10.5%, according to latest figures released by the Louisiana Gaming Control Board (LGCB).

The Pelican State’s seven licensed online sportsbook failed to match their bumper $232.7m windfall generated in March, the first full month following the launch of online sports betting in January. One possible reason for this reduction is the absence of March Madness, which traditionally causes a bounce in sports betting revenue.

Unfortunately, one of the knock-on effects of mobile sports betting being legalized in the state is that retail sportsbooks have suffered even harder.

The latest set of LGCB figures were particularly damning in this area, with April’s retail sports betting handle of $22.2m not only representing a huge 17.8% drop-off from the $27m wagered in March, but also an all-time low for the sector in general. Sportsbook operators deducted just $533,415 in promotional spending during the period.

Although each of the licensed online sportsbooks in Louisiana is twinned with a brick-and-mortar casino partner in the state, LGCB data also revealed that online sports betting accounted for 89.3% of all wagering activity in April.

With that percentage equating to $186m in online bets placed throughout the month, this number was again down 9.5% from the $205.7m collected during March. In the debut month of February, the state took just $17.1m in revenue from sportsbook operators.

As a result of this, combined gross gaming revenues from online and retail sportsbooks in the state fell off a cliff in April, with the $6.1m generated representing a staggering 80% reduction on the $30m produced during the same period in March. As a result, the sports betting taxes levied in Louisiana last month amounted to just $2.6m, falling some way short of the state’s initial projections.