The latest monthly data released by the Virginia State Lottery shows that sportsbooks in the state posted a handle of $236,432,523 in the month of April. This was the third full month of legal sports betting in the state and the lowest handle recorded yet.
April’s sports betting handle marks a drop of 22.25% on the previous month’s handle of $304,066,245, although March betting activity was heavily affected by the NCAA March Madness college basketball tournament.
Virginian gamblers won $216,990,207, for a combined 8.22% operators win percentage (hold) down a fraction from the 8.74% hold reported in March. The hold represented $19,442,316 in combined earnings for the state’s sportsbooks which was considerably less than the $26,573,877 earned in March via legal sportsbetting in Virginia.
April also saw Unibet become the seventh operator in the state joining FanDuel, DraftKings, BetMGM, BetRivers, William Hill, and WynnBET.
Virginia allows operators to deduct some customer acquisition costs such as bonuses and free-play incentives from their adjusted gross revenue (AGR) and for the month of April this amounted to $5,529,294, marking a considerable drop on the $10M+ offered during March. Other deductions totaled $2,532,886 resulting in a combined AGR of $11,380,137, down from March’s AGR of $13,845,012.
Despite the drop in the overall handle and AGR, the state saw taxes increase by 28.4% to $1,652,146.82. Of the tax collected 97.5% ($1,610,843.15) will go to Virginia’s General Fund while 2.5% ($41,303.67) will go to the state’s Problem Gambling Treatment and Support Fund.
Overall, the figures indicate that Virginia has likely cleared $1B in cumulative sports handle during the month of May although the exact figure won’t be known until sometime in late June.
Virginia has continued to outpace Tennessee — the closest state in a like-for-like comparison — easily beating the Volunteer State’s sports betting handle by at least $50M+ each month. While both states currently only offer mobile sports betting, their respective handles are expected to grow significantly once the first casinos and retail sportsbooks open their doors in the not too distant future.
Virginia’s online gaming industry also saw a drop in revenue generating a handle of $115M, down $8M from March. This resulted in AGR of $3.8M, down 4% from March.
Olivia has worked as an editor and writer for major brands across multiple niches. She now focuses on the iGaming and sports betting industries.