As expected, Virginia’s legal sports betting market continued to fall in the summer months as the commonwealth, like all other legal betting states, is counting down the days to football season.
The Virginia Lottery announced that their online sports betting sites and retail sportsbooks accepted $293.6 million in bets during July, an 8.8% monthly decline. On the bright side, like June, Virginia’s year-over-year handle increased by 10%.
Mobile sportsbooks saw 99% of the statewide wagers with the retail books reporting $2.6 million in bets. But those brick-and-mortar operators enjoyed s higher hold percentage than their counterparts. Retail books kept 23% of their wagers while online sportsbooks held a respectable 11%. Not surprisingly, based on the online dominance in Virginia, the overall hold percentage was 11%.
Despite a lower handle, the 1% increase in hold helped the commonwealth increase its monthly tax bill. The operators reported an adjusted gross revenue of $28.2 million, slightly above June’s $26.4 million. And therefore the tax bill ticked up to $4.1 million, a 5% increase.
Promotional play in Virginia
Like other states, Virginia allows sportsbooks to deduct their bonus bets and other promos from their gross profit. But unlike the others they only allow sportsbooks to deduct in their first year of operation. That means FanDuel and DraftKings are well past the window.
But Virginia bettors are still benefiting from the smaller operators who recently launched. Companies like bet365, Hard Rock Bet, and Betfred are still vying to increase their market share through promos.
Now, July still saw a dip in promo deductions, but in the middle of summer that’s not shocking. July’s promo deduction of $827,000 was the lowest since January 2023. But year over year data shows the increase. July’s promos were well above July 2022, which saw just $396,000 in deductions.
As football season ramps up expect that number to increase this fall.
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