Legal Sports Betting in Louisiana Covers Quite a Bit of Ground

Dave Schwab Sports Betting Expert

3 minute read

Louisiana became one of the latest states to offer legal sports betting. In-state bettors were able to place legal wagers at certain retail sportsbooks on Oct. 31. These initial retail sportsbooks are located in land-based casinos.

Further expansion of the market will include both retail and online sportsbooks. The state expedited the process to let those initial retail books go live. Once at full capacity, Louisiana has the potential to become a major market in the legal US sports betting industry.

Additional retail sportsbooks should be open by the end of the year. This includes the Golden Nugget riverboat casino in Lake Charles. This casino is owned and operated by Landry’s Inc. out of Houston, Texas.

Mobile sportsbook operators are still working through the licensing process. The first online books are hoping to go live early next year. Legal online sports betting will be available in 55 of the state’s 64 parishes.

Major operators such as FanDuel, DraftKings and BetMGM will be able to legally offer access to their mobile sports betting apps in each of those 55 parishes.

Also planned for early 2022 is legal sports betting through kiosks in licensed bars and restaurants serving alcohol. The Louisiana Lottery Corp. is in charge of licensing for this retail segment of the market.

Louisiana joins Tennessee as one of the few states in the South with legal mobile sports betting. Florida recently went live with legal mobile sports betting through the Seminole Tribe. However, there are still some legal hurdles to clear in that state due to pending lawsuits.

In the tradition of New Orleans as the ultimate party town, Louisiana is going all-in on legal sports betting options.

State law opens the door to legal betting on more than 30 different sports. At the top of the list are the biggest betting sports such as football, basketball, baseball, hockey and soccer.

There are no restrictions against betting on in-state college teams. Earlier this year, Caesars Sportsbook became the official sports betting partner of LSU athletics.

A few of the more interesting secondary betting sports on the list include volleyball, rowing, rodeo, badminton, darts and lawn bowling.

Cricket bets can be placed covering the Indian Premier League as well as the Caribbean Premier League.

The list of legal betting sports even includes Nathan’s Famous hot dog eating contest at Coney Island, New York. As the country’s biggest competitive food eating contest, this event takes place every 4th of July.

As long as a sport or sporting event is sanctioned by an official organization, it should make its way onto the list. This includes entertainment events such as the annual Academy Awards.

While it has taken longer than expected, legal sports betting in Louisiana is up and running through retail sportsbooks.

This market will still need time to develop and mature. However, this is one state that should continue to rise through the ranks as one of the bigger markets in the legal US industry.

Written by Dave Schwab, our US Sports Betting Industry Expert. You can read more about our author's expertise here.

Dave Schwab

Dave Schwab has been covering the sports betting industry for the past 12 years as the main focus of his specialty marketing company for online content. This endeavor followed a previous career in the field of sales and marketing in the wholesaling sector.Most of his weekly pieces focus on the rapidly expanding legal US sports betting industry. However, he still does extensive work covering betting angles that can provide a competitive edge to avid players. Dave believes that it is always a challenge to take past results and current form to try and correctly determine a future result. Sports brings out the unpredictability in what should be a fairly predictable outcome based on the stats, facts and recent trends in a particular matchup. More from Dave Schwab