Betway, PointsBet and the UK’s 888 Holdings were each awarded mobile sports betting licenses by the Virginia Lottery in late November, bringing the number of licensed operators to 13.
The state’s gaming regimen allows the Lottery to issue an additional one or two mobile sports betting licenses before year’s end.
888 says it plans to deploy a Sports Illustrated (SI)-branded sportsbook in Virginia. It will be the second state where SI Sportsbook is run; it launched in Colorado in September. 888 entered into a partnership with the parent company of SI, Authentic Brands Group, in June.
In a statement, 888 Holdings’ Senior Vice President and Head of US Yaniv Sherman said the gaming giant was “delighted to have been awarded our license by the Virginia Lottery. This is an important milestone for 888 which enhances our foothold in the US online sports betting and iGaming market.
“There is a growing sports betting fanbase in the state and I firmly believe that SI Sportsbook, supported by our partners at SI, will offer a unique and differentiated experience to our customers which will be well-received.”
888 said it plans to launch SI Sportsbook in Virginia in 2022.
13 operators authorized, 10 currently live
With Betway, PointsBet and 888 added to the fold, 13 sportsbooks have now been authorized by the Virginia Lottery to operate in the Old Dominion. Of those 13 sportsbooks, 10 are currently live.
Five operators – BetMGM, BetRivers, Caesars Sportsbook, DraftKings and FanDuel – were issued licenses by the Lottery last January. That enabled them to take bets on Super Bowl LV in February.
The Lottery awarded four additional licenses – to WynnBET, Golden Nugget, Bally Bet and Barstool Sportsbook – in March. That was quickly followed by the issuance of a license to Unibet the next month. The five operators got their sportsbooks up and running at different times of the year, with WynnBET going live in March and Unibet coming online in April. Barstool went live in August, while Golden Nugget and Bally Bet went live in October and November, respectively.
Regulations updated in 2021
Lawmakers in the state General Assembly enacted legislation to make sports betting legal in April 2020, but sportsbooks didn’t begin to go live in the Old Dominion until January 2021. The Virginia Lottery, which lawmakers empowered to run mobile sports betting in the state, initially received 25 applications for sports betting licenses but, in an unusual move, did not disclose who the operators were.
Initially, in legislation enacted in 2020, the General Assembly allowed the Lottery to award at least four mobile sports betting licenses, but no more than 12. The 2020 law also stipulated that land-based casinos under consideration or construction in four Virginia cities – Bristol, Danville, Norfolk and Portsmouth – could also get mobile licenses, which would not count against the minimum of four but would count against the cap of 12.
The 2020 law allowed sportsbooks to partner with Colonial Downs, the state’s only horse racetrack, or with major league sports franchises that either have their headquarters in the state or have plans to build a new stadium in Virginia. The law also allowed issuance of mobile sports betting licenses in both cases without being counted against the cap.
Last March, Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam signed updated legislation that removed the verbiage where mobile sports betting licenses awarded to land-based casinos counted against the cap. Two months later, the Lottery received another 18 applications for licenses. At the time, the Lottery stated that they could add up to five licenses in 2021, meaning that one or two licenses may still be awarded before the end of December.
Although the Lottery has kept the identity of all of the operators who have sought licenses secret, public comment records show Handle 19, theScore Bet and US Bookmaking were engaged in the process in September 2020. The three operators are likely still interested in obtaining licenses.
Virginia voters authorized construction of four land-based casinos in the state. Hard Rock is building a casino in Bristol, while Caesars is constructing a casino in Danville. Rush Street Gaming, which owns the BetRivers and PlaySugarHouse brands, is developing Rivers Casino Portsmouth and the Pamunkey Indian Tribe is building HeadWaters Resort & Casino in Norfolk.
Although it is unclear what operator the Pamunkey tribe would prefer to partner with in Norfolk, Hard Rock appears likely to develop their own sportsbook in-house.
FanDuel, the first sports betting operator to launch in Virginia, is partnered with the Washington Football Team. Meanwhile, PointsBet is licensed to provide an online sportsbook for Colonial Downs Group, the owner and operator of the Colonial Downs Racetrack in New Kent.
Handle hits a record in October
Virginians wagered a record $427.3 million in October, up 45% from September, according to data from the Lottery. Five weekends of college football and NFL action drove the handle into record territory, the Lottery said. The handle totaled about $2.4 billion year-to-date.
Adjusted gross revenue from mobile sports wagering was about $9.8 million in October. The year-to-date total was $90.8 million. According to the Lottery, operators spent a combined $15.8 million on bonuses and promotions in October and have spent $90 million to date.
The Old Dominion levies a 15% tax on sports betting activity, with 97.5% of tax revenue going to the state’s general fund and 2.5% deposited in the Problem Gambling Treatment and Support Fund. The fund is administered by the Virginia Department of Behavioral Health.
Virginia collected $1.7 million in tax revenue from online sports betting in October, with about $44k earmarked for the problem gambling fund. Year-to-date, online sports betting has generated $14.4 million in tax revenue for the state, which includes $359k for the problem gambling fund.
