October saw grossing gaming revenue in Virginia fail to beat its record set the month prior as it slipped by 2.5 per cent.
Falling from $30.9m to $30.2m, the slight dip comes after Virginia’s sports betting volume skyrocketed to a state record in the same month, citing five weekends of football being the driver for catapulting wagers to more than $427m.
The figure, which was also boosted by the opening of the NBA season and baseball’s postseason, officially made Virginia the quickest state in US history to reach $2bn in lifetime wagers, according to PlayVirginia, which tracks Virginia’s sports betting market.
Dann Stupp, lead analyst for PlayVirginia.com, stated: “With a calendar that included an extra weekend of NFL and college football, the opening of the NBA and NHL seasons, and baseball’s postseason, October was the best opportunity so far for Virginia sportsbooks and the results did not disappoint.
“A strong start to the football season shows a maturing market with an increasing number of operators launching and a base of bettors that are increasingly comfortable with online sports betting.”
Virginia’s online sportsbooks generated $427.3m in bets in October, easily topping the previous record of $304.1m reached in March, according to data by The Virginia Lottery. The state handle was up 45.4 per cent from $293.9m in September as volume rose to $13.8m per day over the 31 days of October from $9.8m in September.
Virginia also reported $15.8m in promotions whittled tabavle revenue down to $9.8m, yielding $1.7m in state taxes.
Since launching in January 2021, Virginia has produced; $2.4bn in wagering, $206m in GGR, yielding $90.8m in taxable revenue and $14.4m in state taxes.
“It’s hard to imagine a better start for Virginia’s sports betting industry,” said Eric Ramsey, an analyst for the PlayUSA.com Network, which includes PlayVirginia.com. “The brisk action over the last two months is raising the bar for the entire market, too. Not only are more Virginians betting, but they are expanding their interest in less conventional wagers such as in-game betting.”
