The summer is over, and the growing menu of sports have woken up Louisiana bettors tired of mid-season baseball.
Louisiana’s Gaming Control Board announced that operators in the Pelican State accepted $234.5 million, breaking four straight months of falling handle.
The good news for sportsbooks is that August is usually the start of a new trend of increasing action through the end of the year, which will also bring higher revenue. But despite the huge increase in handle last month, it didn’t translate to an equally higher revenue jump.
Both the retail and online operators grossed $25.3 million, just a hair more than the $24 million collected in July, and still below $26.2 million in June. Not surprisingly, the hold percentage fell from 13% to 10.7%. The operator bottom line was also hurt by the spike in promotions for bettors, a common strategy as football season begins.
Retail market shows strength
The 2023-2024 fiscal year was not great for Louisiana sports betting's physical books. Nine of the 12 months had a lower yearly handle and 10 of the 12 months had lower yearly revenue.
But August was a good month for the brick-and-mortar operators. Compared to August 2023, handle was 8.2% higher and revenue was 36.3% better. Plus the hold percentage of 16.5% last month was impressive.
That being said, mobile betting is still king, where the handle grew 57.1% year over year and revenue jumped 51.2%.
Parlays bring the profits
Football is back and the sportsbooks certainly enjoyed the resumption of America’s favorite sport. For the mobile book, football profits hit $2 million, beating every other single sport. The retail markets recorded $1.2 million in net proceeds, which is higher than every single sport combined (not counting parlays).
| Online Sports Betting Method | Revenue |
|---|---|
| Parlay | $13 million |
| Football | $2.09 million |
| Baseball | $2.05 million |
| Basketball | $579,000 |
| Soccer | $553,000 |
| Other | $4.4 million |
