Virginia Sports Betting Revenue And Handle
The experts at BetVirginia.com have assembled this guide to explain what we mean when we talk about revenue and sportsbook handle for Virginia sports betting that the state reports each month.
There is an active market with many online or mobile operators as well as a growing number of retail sports wagering options at brick-and-mortar casinos in the commonwealth.
The handle is simply the total dollars wagered on sports in the state each month. In Virginia, bettors wager hundreds of million of dollars each month. From the time legal sports betting launched in January 2021 to early 2023, legal, regulated sports bets were placed exclusively with online sportsbooks. Since then, physical casinos have begun taking retail wagers on sports, albeit in much smaller numbers.
The revenue refers to the amount that operators have left after they pay out winning bets. From there, bookmakers pay 15% tax to the state on the adjusted gross revenue. Those operators often offer Virginia sportsbook promo codes to their customers.
Virginia Sports Betting, March vs. February
| Total handle | Mobile handle | Revenue |
March | $635.593M | $629.663M | $42.436M |
February | $545.068M | $540.138M | $44.455M |
Change | Up 16.6% | Up 16.6% | Down 4.5% |
Virginia Sports Betting Handle and Revenue: March 2024
March Madness was kind to Virginia sportsbooks, with a 16.6% month-over-month increase in wagering handle offsetting a 4.5% drop in sports betting adjusted gross revenue in the Old Dominion.
Overall, Virginia sports betting operators took in $635,593,266 in handle (or wagers accepted) in March. That represented a 16.6% jump from February’s handle of $540,138,289 and a 24.2% surge year-over-year from the $507,025,619 from March 2023.
That surge contrasted with a slight drop in adjusted gross revenue in the Commonwealth. Virginia sportsbooks generated $42,435,808 in March, a 4.5% decrease in a month-over-month comparison with February’s $44,454,518. March’s revenue was also down 10.9% year-over-year from the $47,651,362 reported 12 months earlier.
The handle for March represented the second largest total in Virginia sports betting history, behind January’s sum of $646,246,293 and ahead of November’s $532,233,093. The third month of 2024 was the fourth month in state history with a handle exceeding $600 million.
As for taxation, Virginia sportsbooks saw a 1.4% drop month-over-month, from $6,342,927 in February to $6,251,083 in March, putting a final note on a month to remember for sports betting operators in the Old Dominion.
Virginia Mobile Sports Betting History
Virginia Sports Betting Handle and Revenue FAQs
The Virginia sports betting handle in 2023 was more than $5.59 billion, an increase of 13.7% compared to the $4.9 billion amount wagered statewide in 2022. In the first year of Virginia sports betting, 2021, the handle was just over $3.22 billion.
The tax rate for Virginia sports betting is 15%. That’s what operators pay to the state out of the adjusted gross revenue derived from sports wagering once winning bets are paid out.
The Virginia Lottery reports its figures for sports betting once a month, usually at the end of the following month or on the first day of the month after that. For instance, March 2023 figures were released on May 1, 2023.
The Virginia Lottery states on its website: “Of the state tax on sports betting AGR, the statute specifies 97.5% is to be deposited in the state’s General Fund and 2.5% is to be deposited into the Problem Gambling Treatment and Support Fund administered by the Virginia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services.”
The Virginia Lottery regulates sports betting in the commonwealth.
Mobile sports betting handle refers to the amount of money wagered on mobile or online apps, using phones, laptops or other online devices. Many mobile operators offer Virginia sports betting promo codes to their customers. In Virginia, sports betting was done exclusively online for the first two years of operation; the state had no brick-and-mortar casinos at the time. Since then a few casinos have opened in the state and several can accept retail bets on sports in addition to more traditional slot machines and table games.
Handle is the terms used to refer to the amount of money wagered in a month. If a handle is reported as $350 million, that means that the operators in the state combined to accept that much money from people betting on sports. Revenue refers to what’s left over after winning bets are paid out; Virginia gaming revenue on sports is taxed based on the amount of adjusted gross revenue each month.
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The experts at BetVirginia who bring you the latest updates in Virginia sports betting. We pull together decades of experience to give you analysis as well as comparisons of the best VA online gambling apps.
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