Just in time for NFL lines released on Championship Weekend, mobile sports betting heads live in Louisiana on January 28th. It’s a very quick turnaround for bettors in the state, with the gaming control board announcing on Wednesday, January 26th that some licensed applications would begin accepting wagers on Friday morning at 8 AM.
Great Timing for the State
While officials, fans, and bettors in the state would probably love to see the hometown Saints playing for a trip to the Super Bowl, it’s still a great time for Louisiana to be launching their mobile betting. Championship games in the NFL and the Super Bowl (held on February 13th) are two of the most wagered weekends of the year.
What’s great about the Super Bowl and the NFL championship games is that they are events that attract the casual fan, so Louisiana should see great sign up numbers right out of the gates. The state is also about to have about a million extra visitors coming to New Orleans for the March 1st Mardi Gras festival, and college basketball’s March Madness – another insanely popular betting event – starts on March 13th.
What This Means for Louisiana
Bettors have been able to place sports wagers since October 31st when former Saints QB Bobby Hebert placed the first legal bet in the state at Harrah’s New Orleans Casino at the newly opened Caesar’s Sportsbook. Bettors had to physically be at the casinos to place a wager.
Allowing mobile betting is going to open gambling up for a lot more residents and visitors – basically anybody physically located in the state as proven by a cell phone’s GPS coordinates. Allowing mobile betting will reportedly bring Louisiana $50 million per year or more.
Opening up mobile betting also keeps more gambling money in the state. Residents who didn’t live near one of the 11 sportsbooks that offered legal sports betting may have been inclined to travel to nearby Mississippi or Arkansas where sports wagering was also available. Now anybody within the state boundaries can place a bet via their phone starting on Friday January 28th.
How Did Louisiana Get Here?
Once the state cleared legalized sports betting in-person at casinos it was only a matter of time before mobile betting was allowed. Louisiana was losing a lot of sports betting revenue to nearby Biloxi, Mississippi – about an hour drive from New Orleans – so it made sense to legalize sports wagering in some capacity.
Nebraska and Wisconsin both have sports betting legal pending the crossing of some t’s and dotting some i’s, making it just 18 states where sports wagering cannot be done legally. Fifty-five of 64 parishes in Louisiana voted in favor of legalizing sports betting, so it will be popular. It should be noted that residents will have to be in one of the 55 parishes where betting was approved in order to place a wager (and be at least 21 years old).
One announcement that is still pending is just which retailers will be offering residents the ability to bet on games.The state has approved 13 retail licenses with 7 more still pending. Advertising from DraftKings, Caesars, BetMGM, and WynnBet has been very prominent in the state as of late. DraftKings, FanDuel, Caesars, BarStool, BetMGM, and BetRivers have all confirmed they will be going live on Friday morning.
Summary
Mobile sports betting should be wildly popular in Louisiana especially during next year’s SEC football season where LSU will draw an incredible amount of wagering activity. The Superdome in New Orleans has played host to seven Super Bowls (eighth coming in 2025) and five college basketball championships. The Sugar Bowl has been played in New Orleans since 1975 and Saints games (like any NFL contest) will also be a hugely popular wagering event.
States rarely fall below their projections when it comes to revenue created from legalizing mobile sports betting, and it would seem that Louisiana has just as good a chance as any of them to find success starting Friday January 28th.
