Mississippi Sports Betting Handle Tops $300 Million Since Launch

• June was Mississippi’s lowest sports betting handle since their launch month of August 2018.
• Over $3.5 million has been contributed to the state and local governments from legal sports betting.
• Mississippi bettors continue to struggle as they hold the lowest win percentage of all legal betting states.

Jackson, MS – With the $15.2 million wagered in Mississippi during June, the total betting handle since the launch of the state’s industry (August 1, 2018) has exceeded the $300 million mark. A little less than half of that has come in this year alone, as the newest revenue report released from the Mississippi Gaming Commission shows that $144.6 million has been bet on sports in 2019.

In terms of revenue, the sportsbooks have collected $30.5 million since launch ($15.3 million year-to-date) – pre-tax contributions.

June marked the fourth month in a row that the state’s betting handle has decreased month-to-month but broke the trend of declining monthly revenue, surpassing the near $1.2 million collected in May.

The state was able to collect a total of $131,575 in tax revenue while the cities where the sportsbooks are located brought in $65,787 from the $1.6 million kept by the books.

In terms of what the bettors were focused on, baseball was the major player this month, totaling $9.2 million in betting action. This marks the highest percentage of the sports betting handle that baseball was responsible for (60.6%), much higher than the 47% and 28% for May and April, respectively.

Parlays did some damage to the sportsbooks this month, as bettors were able to put the “Coastal” region books in the red by over $20,000. With over $867,000 bet on parlays in this region, this marks the second-time in Mississippi sports betting history (November 2018) where a region of books lost money on parlay action for the month.

The hold percentage (bettor’s losing wager total divided by total money wagered) was above 10% again for another month – something that has happened seven times in Mississippi’s 11-month betting history.

No other legal sports betting state has seen sportsbooks collect at a higher percentage than Mississippi, thanks in part to the “Central” region possessing a hold percentage at 14.1% (15.4% year-to-date).

The NFL and college football season is only a few weeks away and bettors in Mississippi are already starting to lay their money down, having accumulated over $52,000 worth of wagers in June. During the last professional and collegiate football seasons, sportsbooks in Mississippi amassed over $122 million in football betting alone.

News tags: Mississippi | Mississippi Gaming Commission | NFL