Louisiana Becomes the Latest State to Ban College Prop Bets

Posted on: April 3, 2024, 01:27h. 

Last updated on: April 3, 2024, 01:27h.

Louisiana has joined more than 30 other states where sports betting is allowed in banning player props involving college student-athletes.

On Monday, the Louisiana Gaming Control Board (LGCB) issued a bulletin informing its regulated retail and online sportsbooks that bets on an individual college player’s performance will soon be prohibited. The rule will go into effect at 8:00 am CDT on Aug. 1, 2024.

“Any proposition or ‘prop’ bet on an individual athlete’s performance or statistics participating in a college sporting event” will become excluded from the state’s Official Sports Betting Catalog on Aug. 1. Only proposition bets based on full college team outcomes will remain.

Ronnie Johns, chair of the LGCB, acknowledged that the regulatory adjustment “may present challenges” for operators.

Sports betting operators shall use their best efforts to comply with the intent of this notification,” Johns said.

The LGCB’s action comes after the NCAA petitioned the gaming regulator to adjust its sports wagering rules to exclude college player props. The NCAA’s wishes are specific to individual games, not season-long bets like who will win the Heisman Trophy.

College Props Tossed

Louisiana follows Ohio, Maryland, and Vermont in recently telling its sportsbook licensees to stop offering college player props. The NCAA says such wagers have increased student-athletes being harassed online via social media and in person.

NCAA President Charlie Baker says player props are among the college sports governing body’s paramount concerns regarding sports gambling. Along with increased risks to athletes, such bets, Baker argues, increase game integrity risks, as a student-athlete might be more susceptible to throw a game in exchange for a bribe.

Sports betting issues are on the rise across the country with prop bets continuing to threaten the integrity of competition and leading to student-athletes and professional athletes being harassed,” Baker said in a statement. “The NCAA has been working with states to deal with these threats, and many are responding by banning college prop bets.”

With Louisiana’s forthcoming college player prop ban, just three states continue to allow such bets — Kansas, Michigan, and Wyoming.

Oddsmakers say player props account for a relatively small amount of their overall action. When the Ohio Casino Control Commission banned college player props in February, the agency’s executive director, Matthew Schuler, said such bets represented less than 1.5% of the money legally wagered through the state’s sportsbooks.

Louisiana Sports Betting Market

During Louisiana’s 2022/2023 fiscal year, the LGCB reported that the state’s online sportsbooks took over $2.2 billion in bets. Retail oddsmakers accepted about $307.1 million in wagers.

Online sportsbooks kept nearly $206.9 million of the action, while in-person betting won $38.4 million for a combined haul of approximately $245.3 million.

The rest of the top 10 includes Ohio ($936.6M), Pennsylvania ($686.9M), Virginia ($560.2M), Maryland ($514.1M), Arizona ($492.4M), Massachusetts ($483.2M), and Nevada ($481.3M).