Louisiana Sports Betting to Ban College Props

Significant changes are coming to Louisiana sports betting.

Beginning this August, the Bayout State will no longer allow college player proposition bets. The move is seismic, albeit not unexpected. Calls for online sportsbooks in the United States to detach from NCAA player prop bets have mounted ever since the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act was overturned in 2018. However, the opposition to these wagers have grown even more over the past year or so. This is predominantly in response to an increasing number of threats and harassment lobbied at collegiate athletes.

Player safety, of course, is paramount at every level of sports. But there’s a unique concern for college athletes. Sure, they now have the ability to get compensated for their name, image and likeness. In many cases, though, we’re talking about minors having their well-being endangered by aggrieved bettors who are disproportionately upset about their transactions not paying out.

This issue isn’t just top of mind when it comes to sports betting in Louisiana. Other states have taken steps to limit the betting types allowed on college events. The laws for sports betting in Ohio are perhaps the most well-known on this front. But we have also seen sports betting in Vermont and sports betting in Maryland make the same changes.

Now that the Louisiana sports betting market is about to join the fold, should we expect to see other states follow suit? And, of course, how will this change be rolled in the Bayou State? Plus, what type of impact will it have? Let’s dig into the latest!

NCAA Played Pivotal Role in College Player Props Getting Bounced from Louisiana Sports Betting

The NCAA has been pretty outspoken about the importance of states nixing college player prop bets from their gambling packages. And Louisiana decided to act on their concerns.

"There have definitely been reports where athletes are threatened and vilified for not covering a bet," Ronnie Johns, the Louisiana Gaming Control Board Chairman, told USA Today in an interview. "These are college kids and shouldn't be subjected to that."

The president of the NCAA, Charlie Baker, actually flat-out said he wished more states would ban college player prop bets. His comments came just before the March Madness tournament. However, Louisiana sports betting isn’t merely responding to Baker’s and the NCAA’s concerns. They apparently had plans to act beforehand.

"We began discussions weeks ago after we noticed a growing problem across the country," Johns told USA Today. "We wanted to hit it head on and early and believe it's the right thing to do." He added that while he doesn’t have any direct knowledge of Louisiana college athletes dealing with issues of threats and harassment, it makes more sense to be proactive instead of reactive. “It is the intention of the Louisiana Gaming Control Board to protect the integrity of sports betting as well as the safety and integrity of college athletes," he said. "We feel that this order accomplishes that goal."

Will the Sports Betting Industry Push Back Against This New Order?

Anytime new laws are passed that limit a major corporation's business interests, you can’t help but wonder whether they’ll try to resist. In the case of Louisiana sports betting, though, there has been no push-back. On the contrary, Johns said that the industry has been incredibly supportive.

Make no mistake, this is a great sign. But it’ll be interesting to see whether this support holds if and when other states follow suit.

As far as we can tell, just the aforementioned four states—Louisiana, Ohio, Maryland and Vermont—have these specific restrictions in place. Others have rules against betting on college events in-state. And certain states already limit the types of prop bets generally available to the public.

Beyond that, however, there doesn’t seem to be a groundsell of laws that prevent betting on collegiate player props.

Should We Expect More States to Follow in the Footsteps of Louisiana?

In the coming months and years, we would expect this relatively uncommon Louisiana sports betting rule to graduate into more of a country-wide normal. For now, sports betting in the USA remains a fledgling industry. This is particularly true for states who have only launched operations within the past couple of years. Further adjustments should come as these markets gain a better understanding of the challenges and downsides of legal sports betting.

Heck, we have seen something similar play out with sports betting advertisements. More and more states are inclined to crack down on how online betting sites in the USA package and frame promotions.

The same also goes for daily fantasy sports apps in the United States. Once upon a time, these DFS sites existed in a ubiquitous gray area. Most states didn’t license them, specifically, but they also didn’t ban them. Now, over the past six months or so, we have seen plenty of states take steps toward shutting down DFS pick ‘em competitions. And this isn’t happening only in the handful of places without some form of legal sports betting. In fact, the states with legal sports betting are the most proactive when it comes to reshaping the DFS landscape.

This is all to say, we fully expect the Louisiana sports betting ban on college player props to eventually evolve into industry standard. We don’t know how long it’ll take. But this time next year, after various legislatures have reconvened and then adjourned, we’d expect a handful of states to have added their own bans on college player prop betting.

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