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, September vs. August

Virginia Sports Betting Handle and Revenue: September 2024

The beginning of football season brought an expected increase in Virginia sports betting figures for September.

In all, bettors wagered $622,060,604 for the month. That represented an increase of 49.3% from August’s $416,689,217, and that was also 19.6% better than the $520,304,187 handle (mobile and retail combined) reported for September 2023.

Online wagering accounted for nearly all the betting traffic during September. The commonwealth’s mobile apps accepted $618,318,210 in wagers or 99.4% of the action. The mobile handle was up 49.1% from August’s $414,765,842 and 20.1% from the $514,700,402 bet through apps in September 2023.

Virginia's report also put national sports betting handle over the 'link_text_goes_here','BetVirginia.com - News - Filtered','53566','','','','gtm-content-internal-links'00 billion mark for 2024, about two months faster than 2023. 

Sportsbook revenues enjoyed an even bigger increase during the month. Virginia sports betting operators reported adjusted gross revenues of $65,864,297. Not only was that total an 88.3% improvement upon August’s winnings of $34,983,940, but it was also up 44.4.% from the $45,616,219 in AGR reported 12 months earlier.

Virginia online sports betting operators claimed all but $572,076 of the AGR. Their $65,292,221 in winnings bested their August total of $34,568,801 by 88.9% and their September 2023 tally of $44,781,544.

The stark increase in revenue was spurred by the bevy of upsets that took place during the first month of the NFL regular-season schedule when several heavy favorites lost outright. Among the shockers was the Washington Commanders downing the Cincinnati Bengals on Monday Night Football during Week 3.

Thanks to the increase in AGR, the state also saw a significant uptick in tax revenue. Virginia received $9,875,140 in September, an 88.3% jump from the $5,241,930 in taxes generated in August. On a year-to-year basis, the tax revenue grew 40.3% from $7,040,532.

The Virginia Lottery does not release information about handle or revenue breakdowns for individual operators.

Virginia Mobile Sports Betting History