(The Center Square) — Sports wagers continued to rise in Louisiana in November, though a low win percentage and promotional deductions cut tax collections from the month prior.
The state’s 10 mobile sports books, including Bet365 came online Nov. 21, and generated a total of about $323 million in wagers, or about $47 million more than in October. Despite the increase in wagers, net proceeds were down from $39.2 million in October to $18.1 million in November, with a 5.6% win percentage.
The net proceeds compared to the previous year were down 98.4% in November, though the prior three months showed triple-digit percentage increases. Operators claimed $9.8 million in promotional deductions in October, resulting in about $3 million in taxes paid to the state.
Baseball was a big loser at negative $975,634, while parlay continued to lead net proceeds at $12.5 million, followed by football at $4.5 million, basketball at $4 million, other at $1.3 million, and soccer at $641,342.
Overall, mobile sports wagers were up 32% so far this fiscal year compared to last year, with a total of $1.1 billion in wagers so far, while net proceeds were up 133%. Fiscal year-to-date taxes paid stood at $16.7 million through November.
The state’s 18 retail sports books took $33.5 million in wagers for $1.3 million in net proceeds and $158,879 in taxes paid. November’s 4% win percentage for retail sports books was less than half of October’s rate.
Compared to the previous year, wagers for retail sports books were down 4%, while net proceeds were down 57.8%. So far this fiscal year, wagers through retail sports books were down 7.5%, and net proceeds down 4.8%, compared to the same point in the prior fiscal year.
“It looks like once again, sports book has exceeded our expectations and have a new record month … for the wagering,” Louisiana Gaming Control Board President Ronny Johns said at a meeting on Monday. “The actual win ratio was down significantly from the month before, which creates less tax dollars from the state, but the wagering numbers were up significantly.”
The numbers for November follow two consecutive months of revenue records that generated nearly $5 million in monthly taxes. In October, Louisiana’s mobile sports books generated more than $276 million in wagers and $4.9 million in taxes.
Those figures eclipsed records set in September of $248.8 million in wagers and $4.7 million in taxes.
