VIRGINIA ADDS TWO MORE LEGAL SPORTSBOOK OPERATORS

Dave Schwab Sports Betting Expert

3 minute read

The state of Virginia is quickly approaching its one year anniversary for going live with legal sports betting. It all started on Jan. 21, 2021 when FanDuel first launched its mobile sportsbook app.

DraftKings and BetMGM were quick to follow to give the Old Dominion State a quick jump out of the gate. Virginia was just the second US market after Tennessee to only offer legal sports betting through online sites and mobile betting apps.

Plans are underway for land-based casinos with retail sportsbooks in certain parts of the state. However, online sports betting is the only game in town at the present moment.

The Virginia Lottery is responsible for overseeing the online sports betting industry. The laws in place paved the way for as many as 17 online sportsbook operators in the state. Virginia moved two steps closer to maxing out that number with the recent approval of two additional operators.

The Lottery posted approvals for Betway on Nov. 24. The following day, 888 received the green light to offer its mobile betting app in Virginia.

Digital Gaming Corporation VA is the official corporate name for Betway in the state. This will be the sixth legal market in the US for the Betway brand.

While 888 Holdings in Gibraltar is the parent company behind the 888 brand in the US, the corporate listing in Virginia is VHL, VA.

With these two additions to the mobile betting lineup, there will soon be 15 active sports betting operators in Virginia. PointsBet is also on the approved list through a partnership with Colonial Downs.

Going back to this past winter, the early list of approved mobile sportsbook operators in Virginia also included BetRivers and Caesars Sportsbook. The first expansion beyond the original five was in March with WynnBET going live.

Unibet entered the state in April and Barstool Sportsbook made its debut in August just ahead of the new football season.

Golden Nugget launched its mobile sports betting app in October. This was followed closely by Bally Bet, which went live with its app on Nov. 24.

With the addition of PointsBet, Betway and 888, there are just two online sports betting licenses left to award in Virginia.

State gaming records through September show that the first five online operators control 98.1% of the total betting handle.

That creates quite a challenge for all the newcomers in the Virginia market. Across the entire legal US market, the big three of FanDuel, DraftKings and BetMGM control more than 80% of the business.

One big plus about operating in Virginia is a favorable tax write off. Each month, any promotional spending can be deducted from taxable sports betting revenue.

Written by Dave Schwab, our US Sports Betting Industry Expert. You can learn 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