Virginians laid down $545.1m in bets in February, a 25.6% increase over the same period in 2023. Sportsbooks paid the state a total of $6.3m in taxes and had a hold of 9.18%.
Sportsbooks are taxed at 15% of adjust gross revenue (AGR). According to the Virginia Lottery wagering revenue report, 11 operators finished the month with “net positive AGR”.
Mobile betting accounted for $540m of the total while bettors wagered a combined $4.9m at retail locations. Promotions and deductions continued to decrease. After one senator proposed a cap on allowing operators to write off deductions in 2023, Virginia’s governor, Glenn Youngkin, went a step further and included a 12-month sunset on promotional deductions in his budget.
In total, four new operators also went live in 2023 in Virginia: Bet365 on 31 January 2023; Betfred on 1 February 2023; Betr on 6 September 2023 and SuperBook on 19 October 2023.
Betr, SuperBook only operators that can deduct promos
Bet365 and Betfred have passed the end of their timeline for deducting promotions, leaving just Betr and SuperBook that can continue to do so. If no other operator launches in the state during 2024, no operators will be entitled to deduct promotional play.
Notably, ESPN BET (14 November 2023) and Fanatics Sportsbook (21 November 2023) reskinned existing platforms in 2023 and are therefore not entitled to the deduction. ESPN BET was previously Barstool Sportsbook and Fanatics Sportsbook was previously PointsBet.
Compared to January, handle in Virginia was down, as were AGR, hold and tax payments. In January, sportsbooks had an adjusted win percentage of 10.34% and paid the state $9.9m in taxes, according to Sports Handle’s revenue and tax database.
The lottery does not provide individual information about how each sportsbook or betting market performed in its betting revenue report.
The February reports are the last before North Carolina, the biggest to state to launch so far this year, joins the mix. Operators there went live in early March, just days before the start of the NCAA’s March Madness, the biggest betting event of the year in the US.
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