The latest figures from the Mississippi Gaming Commission show the state’s sports betting market recovered from June’s losses in July, growing revenue year-on-year despite a decline in amounts wagered.
Amounts wagered in July were down 40.8% year-on-year to $7.9m, though with just $1.6m wagered in June, this suggested the market was recovering well following the novel coronavirus (Covid-19) shut-down of the state’s casinos.
From this total, Mississippi’s casinos generated revenue of $1.3m. Again this represented a major improvement on the $62,230.77 loss reported for June. A high win percentage of 16.87% also helped revenue grow year-on-year, coming in 26.8% above July 2019’s $1.1m.
July’s growth was driven by baseball, in a month when Major League Baseball began its truncated 60-game season after its March 26 start was delayed by novel coronavirus (Covid-19). In each of the central, coastal and northern reporting regions, the sport made the largest contribution to both revenue and handle.
Mississippi’s coastal casinos again led the way, despite stakes falling 42.5% from July 2019 to $5.0m. While amounts wagered on baseball fell to $2.0m, a win percentage of 20.94% meant that revenue actually grew year-on-year, to $412,564.55.
Basketball, for which major losses contributed to Mississippi’s full-month loss for June, accounted for the second largest share of revenue. Its $151,366.01 was generated on stakes of just $$647,976.39.
As has been seen in other states, sports outside of the US major leagues – classed as ‘other’ – performed well in the coastal casinos. This segment contributed $1.9m towards handle and revenue of $137,311.02, making it the third largest contributor to the coastal region’s revenue.
The northern region followed coastal, with handle of $1.9m – down 44.0% from July 2019 – and revenue of $338,920.63, up 14.8%. Baseball again proved most popular, accounting for $929,311.37 of stakes, and $158,482.67 of revenue.
However parlay cards were the second most popular product in the region, with players staking $306,571.70 and casinos holding $106,795.43.
Mississippi’s central casinos were the only properties to report year-on-year declines for both amounts wagered and revenue. Player stakes were down 22.3% to $1.0m, while revenue fell 4.9% to $180,495.82.
This decline came despite the central casinos adding parlay cards to their product range since July 2019. For that period, the casinos only reported revenue from betting on baseball, basketball and other sports. While parlay cards contributed stakes of $235,256.95, from which operators generated revenue of $57,152.36 in July 2020, this failed to stop the year-on-year declines.
Again baseball led the way, with $492,556.37 bet, and casinos winning $82,569.72. Parlays came in second, while betting on other sports accounted for a further $148,947.02 in stakes and $29,264.72 in revenue.