Preseason Football Gives Mississippi Sportsbooks A Needed Boost

• Nearly 47% of the August betting handle in Mississippi came from baseball betting alone.
• Bettors on football in Mississippi did quite poorly, equating to over 62% of all sports betting revenue.
• The sportsbooks posted their highest hold percentage (14.51%) since March of this year.

BILOXI, Miss. – Things are starting to turn around regarding Mississippi sports betting. From March to July, the legal sports betting handle had taken a dive, dropping from $32.4 million to $13.4 million during the five-month span.

In comes August and preseason football saves the summer for the Mississippi sportsbooks, bringing in $19.9 million in wagers while keeping $2.9 million from losing bets.

The Hall of Fame Game kicked off the August betting action in Mississippi starting on August 1. From there, the entire preseason was held within this month, as teams played their last exhibition games on August 29.

Roughly $6.0 million was wagered on football during August, but bettors did not find too much fortune with this sport. Combined between every sportsbook, the football bettors allowed the books in Mississippi to keep 30.1% of every dollar risked on a wager.

This accounted for $1.8 million in revenue for the sportsbooks from football betting alone, but it was baseball betting action that really boosted the month’s numbers.

Baseball betting in the Coastal Region (Biloxi) alone, brought in more than all football wagers combined ($6.3 million). A number this high equates to the second-highest single-sport betting handle in one region since the madness that was March.

In total, the three regions collected $9.3 million in baseball wagers. On the opposite side of football though, baseball bettors did their job quite well in Mississippi. Just under $310,000 was kept by Mississippi sportsbooks as a result of baseball bettors, as one region (Northern) even lost money on the sport.

This was the only negative report on the books for a sport, unlike July, which saw five negative reports, and June, which had two of its own.

Nearly 45% of the state’s revenue came directly from football betting in the Coastal Region, as the $1.3 million kept by sportsbooks was unmatched anywhere in the state. This number was so impressive that the next-highest revenue grab came from parlay cards in the Northern Region (Tunica), which brought in $304,728.

The only milestone that was achieved from August’s report came at the benefit of the Coastal Region. Since the August 1, 2018 launch, the coastal region has collected over $200 million in wagers ($211.0 million), with just over $100 million of that coming in 2019 alone. This equates to 63.0% of the betting handle since launch and 60.6% of the handle on the year.

News tags: Biloxi | Hall of Fame Game | Mississippi | Mississippi Gaming Commission | NFL Preseason | Tunica