March Madness was more like “March Sadness” for bettors across Louisiana, as the house routed the public while collecting close to $31 million in gross operator revenue, according to sports wagering figures reported by the Louisiana State Police on Monday.
With nearly $26.4 million in mobile revenue, the house hit big on both hoops and parlays, with the win rate a robust 13.3% on an overall handle of $232.7 million. The mobile hold of 14.2% by the state’s seven online operators was more than double the 6.4% win rate spanning the Pelican State’s 15 retail sportsbooks, which accepted close to $27 million in bets.
Running Top 10 #SportsBetting handle for March by state:
1 New York $1.64B
2 New Jersey $1.12B
3 Pennsylvania $714.98M
4 Michigan $477.97M
5 Indiana $476.8M
6 Iowa $233.5M
7 LOUISIANA $232.7M <—NEW
8 West Virginia $51.7M
9 Oregon $36.2M
10 Maryland $31M#GamblingTwitter— Chris Altruda (@AlTruda73) April 18, 2022
The LSP does not provide handle and revenue reports by operator, nor does it provide handle by sport, which leads to speculation on precisely how much was wagered on basketball and parlays. Basketball in particular would likely have seen a jump in retail wagering, with New Orleans hosting the men’s Final Four and the NBA’s Pelicans in playoff contention.
Additionally, the state was able to tax an overwhelming majority of operator revenue for the first time since mobile wagering began in late January. Each operator is allowed $5 million in promotional credits, and nearly 60% of it had been allocated in January and February, with operators using the Super Bowl to further attract bettors after initial sign-up offers.
The falloff of promotional credits was steep, going from slightly more than $10 million in January to barely more than $800,000 in March. Louisiana taxes adjusted revenue at 15%, but with some operators permitted to carry over losses from the previous month, the total tax haul for the state was more than $3.4 million on $30.1 million in adjusted revenue. Still, that total represents 46.3% of the nearly $7.4 million in overall taxes collected since Louisiana’s first wagers were placed at the end of October.
Handle declined 2.4% from February’s total of $238.4 million, but gross revenue increased 13% as the win rate was close to two percentage points higher. Adjusted revenue, though, spiked 81% month-over-month as the near-13% hold was close to six full percentage points higher.
