Virginia Sports Betting Revenue And Handle

By Editorial Staff

@BetVAdotcom

April 1, 2025 03:32pm

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, February vs. January

Virginia sports betting took an expected dip in February, as the commonwealth’s sportsbooks reported a handle that fell by 24.4% from January.

In all, bettors wagered $556,836,877 during the month, according to figures released by the Virginia Lottery on April 1. That was down from the $736,667,692 in action placed during January in a month-over-month comparison. The February handle was also up 2.2% from the February 2024 total of $545,068,429.

Mobile sports wagering apps accounted for nearly all the betting traffic, with the 14 approved operators taking $553,017,829, or 99.3%, of the wagers. That was a 24.3% decline from the $730,489,687 in action they accepted in January, but it was 2.8% better than the online handle of $540,138,289 from a year earlier.

Revenue slipped by a similar margin, indicating sportsbooks enjoyed a strong month against bettors. Operators reported adjusted gross revenues of $61,911,473 for the second month of 2025, a drop of 23.6% from the $80,999,847 in the previous month. For a year-over-year perspective, operators enjoyed 39.3% increase from the $44,454,518 they won in February 2024.

Again, mobile wagering accounted for nearly all the revenue as the apps received $61,704,883, down 23% from January’s $80,169,746 and up 39.7% from the $44,164,970 reported a year ago.

State tax revenue fell 23.3%, from $12,137,426 in January to $9,303,968 in February. But February’s figure was 46.7% higher than the $6,342,927 Virginia received 12 months earlier.

The Virginia Lottery does not report handle or revenue figures by sportsbook or approved events.

Virginia Mobile Sports Betting History