Virginians Posted $265M In Bets During First Full Month Of Legal Sports Betting

Written By Dann Stupp on April 1, 2021 - Last Updated on July 28, 2023

Sports bettors in Virginia wagered more than $265 million at licensed sportsbooks during February, the commonwealth’s first full month of legal wagering.

The Virginia Lottery released the sports betting figures on Thursday.

The quarter-billion-dollar month follows the debut of Virginia sports betting in January. During a seven-day stretch at the end of the month, four operators eventually came online. Those sportsbooks, including first-to-market FanDuel VA, accounted for a January handle of nearly $59 million.

February included a new operator, as well as a boost from betting on the NFL Super Bowl.

According to the VA Lottery, which regulates sports betting in Virginia, Super Bowl betting accounted for $19,559,701 (more than 7%) of the February handle.

VA sportsbooks

FanDuel (Jan. 24), DraftKings VA (Jan. 24), BetMGM VA (Jan. 27), and BetRivers VA (Jan. 27) launched in January. Caesars VA joined the mix on Feb. 3 and had nearly a full month to contribute to Virginia’s February numbers.

However, the VA Lottery doesn’t offer a breakdown of monthly betting by individual operators.

Collectively, the five sportsbooks took in $265,778,306 and paid out $253,539,526 to players in the form of winnings.

That created a “hold” of 4.6% ($12,238,780) for the VA sportsbooks.

The sports betting operators had a hold of 6.1% in January. The industry average is about 7.2%. That could easily be explained by Super Bowl losses or pending March Madness futures bets that have not been paid yet.

Sportsbooks’ bonuses and promotions in February

Virginia law imposes a 15% tax on sports betting revenue. However, the commonwealth taxes the adjusted gross receipts (AGR) instead of the gross gaming revenue (GGR).

AGR is determined by subtracting total winnings and authorized expenses (primarily the value of player bonuses and other customer-acquisition promos) from total wagers.

The AGR for February totaled $3,235,612 in losses. That is about as much as sportsbooks reported as losses in January.

Here’s a breakdown for Virginia’s first two months of sports betting:

MonthHandleAGRHold %PromosOther deductionsAGR
June 2024$415,360,427$45,490,74910.9$10,956$5,007,357$40,472,436
May 2024$505,594,450$59,966,99911.8%$11,705$6,022,600$53,932,694
April 2024$563,495,540$60,438,98910.7%$11,185$5,908,786$54,629,226
March 2024$635,593,137$47,152,1207.5%$12,973$5,182,715$42,435,808
February 2024$545,068,429$49,715,7249.2%$20,981$5,529,773$44,454,418
January 2024$652,879,750$73,402,93911.4%$1,675,956$5,099,228$67,507,323
December 2023$633,181,758$62,635,70810.0%$1,877,436$4,486,382$57,187,962
November 2023$638,831,057$42,530,6686.7%$1,454,896$5,100,909$36,354,936
October 2023$571,354,817$63,996,95211.2%$2,798,787$4,834,082$56,364,083
September 2023$520,304,187$54,081,41410.4%$3,684,887$4,780,308$45,616,219
August 2023$319,005,942$32,359,88810.1%$743,076$3,711,669$27,905,144
July 2023$293,611,789$32,471,39611.1%$827,332$3,433,137$28,210,927
June 2023$325,455,052$32,668,02410.0%$1,318,014$4,915,680$26,434,330
May 2023$403,719,160$48,144,55011.9%$1,781,519$3,815,651$42,547,380
April 2023$425,982,859$45,121,87810.6%$1,941,696$4,247,815$38,932,367
March 2023$511,614,541$55,258,91010.8%$3,802,388$3,805,159$47,651,362
February 2023$433,807,108$39,766,9089.2%$7,789,446$3,592,213$28,385,249
January 2023$510,982,033$49,393,8129.7%$768,221$6,782,949$41,842,641
December 2022$503,075,150$50,687,27810.1%$567,709$3,099,072$47,020,497
November 2022$518,818,987$57,531,25511.1%$817,857$3,887,949$52,825,450
October 2022$528,029,938$51,164,1999.7%$963,187$4,668,013$45,532,999
September 2022$411,273,323$53,821,38213.1%$1,706,116$3,722,575$48,392,691
August 2022$284,671,331$36,978,89713.0%$1,140,242$4,395,696$31,442,959
July 2022$266,001,583$26,024,4089.8%$396,903$4,228,729$21,398,776
June 2022$295,235,271$25,965,1828.8%$7,834,123$5,146,174$12,984,884
May 2022$351,452,931$42,537,52412.1%$9,967,230$5,045,967$27,524,327
April 2022$399,478,366$36,275,2649.1%$11,253,534$4,260,348$20,761,381
March 2022$469,484,017$33,700,0167.2%$14,104,925$5,270,649$14,324,441
February 2022$401,889,135$27,498,1336.8%$15,816,234$3,797,649$7,884,250
January 2022$485,544,417$39,050,0678.0%$16,850,981$3,978,519$18,220,567
December 2021$426,596,891$31,515,0157.4%$17,051,709$4,339,908$10,123,398
November 2021$402,621,132$48,337,03712%$14,993,073$3,417,267$29,926,697
October 2021$427,320,306$30,160,3857.1%$15,805,261$4,569,424$9,785,700
September 2021$293,851,531$30,929,24410.5%$17,422,068$3,172,781$10,334,395
August 2021$182,418,252$17,967,4279.8%$6,868,639$2,410,724$8,688,064
July 2021$161,901,955$19,913,94112.3%$4,375,872$2,898,664$12,691,020
June 2021$234,943,435$22,006,2979.4%$4,983,544$2,125,855$14,896,898
May 2021$226,963,573$23,150,28410.2%$5,168,732$2,341,616$15,663,201
April 2021$236,432,523$19,442,3178.2%$5,529,294$2,532,886$11,380,137
March 2021$304,066,245$26,573,8778.7%$10,340,533$2,388,332$13,845,012
February 2021$265,778,306$18,702,2847.0%$13,187,560$2,282,972$3,231,752
January 2021$58,896,564$10,057,30117.1%$6,343,077$478,612$3,235,612
Total$17,042,587,198$1,674,586,64210.0%$234,019,857$170,716,794$1,272,979,613

sportsbooks will likely continue to spend heavily on new Virginia sports betting promos to sign up new players. In February, that included a substantial marketing push around the Super Bowl, which is one of the biggest betting events of the year.

Virginia’s young marketplace is already competitive. However, with new VA sportsbooks on the way, operators will continue to use such promos to fight for market share.

Barstool, Bally’s, Golden Nugget on deck

Five sportsbooks were live in Virginia in February. A sixth, WynnBET VA, joined the fray on March 11 and will contribute to the next round of Virginia sports betting totals.

However, three other major players are poised to enter the market. The Virginia Lottery issued temporary permits to the following sportsbooks on March 15.

However, none of the operators has set a definitive launch date for Virginia.

Barstool, Bally’s, and Golden Nugget will be the seventh, eighth, and ninth sportsbooks in Virginia. However, the number should continue to grow.

Virginia Gov. Ralph Northan recently signed HB 1847 and SB 1254. Those two bills cleaned up previous legislation and now ensure that sportsbook licenses for soon-to-debut Virginia casinos won’t count against Virginia’s cap of 12 online permits. That means Virginia could have 18 sportsbooks or possibly more in the future.

How Virginia sports betting taxes are used

Virginia law dictates that 97.5% of the taxed hold goes to the state’s General Fund.

The other 2.5% goes to the Virginia Department of Behavioral Health for the Problem Gambling Treatment and Support Fund.

Virginia’s take for February included:

  • Total tax: $300,593.91
  • General Fund: $$293,079.06
  • Problem Gambling Treatment and Support Fund: $7,514.85

Those figures should increase in future months as Virginia’s AGR settles closer to industry averages.

By market maturity, PlayVirginia projects the annual handle in Virginia to grow $5 billion in sports bets.

Photo by AP / Charlie Riedel
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Dann Stupp

Dann Stupp is a longtime sports journalist who’s written and edited for The Athletic, USA Today, ESPN, MLB.com and other outlets. He lives in Lexington, Virginia.

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