Sports Betting Market in Mississippi Hit Record High With $67.7M Wagered in January 2021
When the US Supreme Court passed its landmark ruling in 2018 that allowed states to decide for themselves on the legality of sports betting, Mississippi was already ahead of the game. The state legislature had enacted a law the previous year that would legalize sports betting pending Supreme Court approval, meaning it was one of the first states in which sports fans could legally put a few dollars on their favorite teams.
Since then, the Magnolia State’s sports betting revenue has climbed month on month, leading to a record $67.7 million being wagered in the first month of 2021, up more than 20 percent on the previous month.
Restrictions proving to be no obstacle
Over the past year, the vital importance of having an online presence has been brought into sharp focus. When you look at the overall revenue generated by the US sports betting sector, the numbers are impressive, and it should come as little surprise that a growing proportion of this revenue is coming from web-based betting platforms and mobile apps.
This makes Mississippi’s performance in the sports betting market all the more remarkable. According to data released by the Mississippi Gaming Commission, more than two-thirds of the state’s sports bets were placed in coastal casinos. That in itself is no surprise, given that Biloxi is to Mississippi what Las Vegas is to Nevada when it comes to gambling. The really remarkable thing about sports betting in the Magnolia State is that the amount wagered has increased by around 50 percent over the same month last year despite the complete absence of online or mobile sports betting facilities.
What sports do people bet on?
Football is the most popular sport from a betting perspective, both in the US as a whole and in Mississippi. Despite the lack of an in-state NFL team, it was impossible not to get drawn into the showdown between the Chiefs and the Bucs this year, and punters lay down their wagers like never before in the run-up to Super Bowl Sunday.
With the football finished for another year, the amount wagered will inevitably drop from the frenzied peak it reached at the end of January, but that doesn’t mean it will tail off entirely. The popularity of Clinton’s own Mississippi Brilla has increased interest in soccer throughout the state, and eyes are already turning to the forthcoming MLS season.
Then, of course, there is the elephant in the room, which is the NBA. The uncertainty surrounding the start of the season and its condensed calendar have combined to give basketball something of a frenzied air this year. The net result, however, is that it has attracted unprecedented attention, especially from those who like to place a wager. That’s only going to increase as the season enters its concluding months.
Will sports betting go online?
The fact that sports betting is rising at such a rate in spite of punters still having to physically enter a licensed casino or hotel in order to place a bet gives an indication of just how enthusiastic the state’s millions of sports fans are on the topic. However, it also begs the question of just how much bigger those numbers would be if fans could simply log on to a sportsbook from their desktop or smartphone.
Elsewhere in the world, for example in the UK, where sports betting has been legal for decades, physical bookmaker facilities are in decline. Once a feature of every shopping mall and appearing in even the smallest towns, “bookies” are starting to disappear as punters instead opt for the convenience of a smartphone app. Inevitably, this trend has accelerated given the restrictions we have all been living within recent months.
Closer to home, voters in Louisiana and Tennessee both approved sports betting late last year. In the case of Tennessee, there are specific provisions for mobile sportsbooks. There have been multiple attempts to introduce mobile sports betting in Mississippi, but so far each has been stymied. In early February, three bills covering different aspects of online sports betting died a death in state committees.
As the domino effect continues and neighboring states adopt both physical and virtual sports betting, it would be disingenuous to assume that Mississippi sports fans will not find a way to indulge their hobby online. It would certainly be a step in the wrong direction to see sports betting effectively chased back underground when the industry got off to such promising new dawn, so surely it is a case of when not if, those sports betting apps will be available to smartphone users here in Mississippi.
