Surpassing one year of operations, Louisiana online sportsbooks have reported their best-ever handle month in January, as they posted wagers of over $245m.
The Bayou State’s retail sports betting operators also recorded their third-best handle month and their second-best revenue month to begin 2023.
According to data compiled by the Louisiana Gaming Control Board (LGCB), the state’s eight online sportsbooks reported a new total handle high of $245.2m, beating the previous best of $233.7m set in Nov. 2022 by 4.93%, as well as Dec. 2022’s $218.7m by 12.13%.
After promotional deductions of $7.7m, the mobile operators earned revenues of $21.97m, a 28.1% decline compared to December’s $30.5m as the win percentage fell to 9% compared to the previous month’s 14%.
With a 15% tax rate on online sports betting revenue, Louisiana’s online sportsbooks paid $2.72m in state taxes in January.
While LGCB doesn’t show how much each operator earned in its report, it does show revenue per sport.
As the NFL playoffs arrived in January, football was the top-performing sport in terms of revenue with $4.65m, followed by basketball with $3.09m, and soccer with $359,195.
Baseball only accrued $25,562 in revenue, parlay bets earned net proceeds of $12.7m, while other bets accounted for $1.11m.
Louisiana’s 18 retail sportsbooks also had one of their best months ever, reporting a handle of $37.03m in January, a 2.73% improvement on December’s $36.1m. The month’s handle is the state’s third-best on record, behind Dec. 2021’s $39.5m and Jan. 2022’s $49.3m.
After promotional deductions of $2,628, retail sports betting operators took $6.04m in revenue, the second-highest net proceeds month for the state, just behind the previous month’s best of $6.49m by 6.99% following a win percentage of 16.3% (Dec. 2022: 18%).
With a 10% tax rate on retail sports betting revenue, Louisiana’s retail sportsbooks paid $604,416 in state taxes.
Per revenue by sport, football led the way with $3.25m, followed by basketball with $1.16m, and soccer with $11,622, while baseball made a loss of $61,370. Parlay bets earned revenues of $1.57m, and other bets accounted for $112,017.
