The Louisiana Gaming Control Board reported a hold of 10.8% for March while sportsbooks collected $37.7 million in gross revenue, marking the 14th time in the last 16 months Pelican State operators had a collective double-digit win rate.
The hold attained by the state’s 18 retail books and nine DraftKings conducts wagering on behalf of the state lottery — in which operators have posted a 10% or higher hold in all three months of 2024.
Handle for March totaled $350 million, up 40.4% from 2023. That marks the third-highest amount in 29 months of wagering. Louisiana’s all-time handle crossed $6 billion, and the $971.1 million worth of wagers in the first quarter of 2024 is up 33.2% from the same span last year.
Gross revenue was up 16.7% despite the hold being 2.2 percentage points lower. The state was eligible to tax $33.8 million in adjusted gross sports betting revenue, resulting in an inflow of $4.9 million into its coffers.
The $14.4 million in tax receipts for the opening three months of 2024 is running $4.9 million ahead of last year’s pace.
Bettors making small gains despite high hold nr6i
Running Top 10 March #SportsBetting handles by state:
1 New York $1.85B
2 New Jersey $1.33B
3 PENN. $800.7M
4 N.C. $659.3M
5 Mass. $654.9M
6 Maryland $536.7M
7 Indiana $500.8M
8 Michigan $497.6M
9 Tenn. ~$472M
10 Louisiana $350M#SportsBettingX #GamblingX— Chris Altruda (@AlTruda73) April 17, 2024
Though March’s hold is more than 50% above the 7% industry standard, it’s the lowest collective win rate for Louisiana operators in 2024. Their 15.2% win rate in January ranked sixth, while the 11.3% hold in February is 20th all-time. March’s hold ranked 22nd and was the lowest among the months of 10% or higher.
Parlay wagering, including same-game parlays, continued to provide the bulk of operator winnings, as the house collected $24.1 million in revenue from those multi-leg wagers. It was the second straight month with $20 million or more in parlay revenue for operators. The hold for those bets is unknown, as the LGCB does not provide handle by sport category or any operator figures.
Basketball provided the other sizable chunk of revenue, with operators winning $8.1 million.
It was the third consecutive March that basketball revenue was $8 million or more, though it was well off the record $12.8 million collected in 2022 when mobile wagering was only in its third month and New Orleans hosted the Final Four of the men’s NCAA Tournament.
The revenue from basketball helped offset bettors cashing Super Bowl futures and other winning football tickets — sportsbooks reported a collective loss of $3.9 million in football revenue, raising the total deficit over the past two months to more than $6.6 million. That total is 3.6 times higher than the $1.8 million in losses accrued in February and March 2023.
