Virginia became the eighth state to surpass $25 billion sports betting handle in the post-PASPA era Wednesday after the Virginia Lottery reported $510.2 million worth of accepted wagers for August.
The Old Dominion joins New York, New Jersey, Illinois, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Arizona, and Colorado in that select circle. Virginia sportsbooks took their first bets in January 2021, and they have been a mainstay in the bottom half of the top 10 nationally for monthly handle.
In addition to the milestone, sportsbooks in the commonwealth had another good month as they reported $62.9 million in gross revenue. Operators collectively attained a 12.3% hold, the fourth consecutive month at 11.5% or better. With no mobile operators claiming deductions from promotional spend, the deductions from the 0.25% federal excise tax, voided wagers, and loss carryover meant the state levied its 15% tax on $58.3 million in adjusted gross revenue.
That resulted in $8.7 million reaching state coffers as Virginia became the eighth state to top $300 million in state tax revenue via sports wagering. The Old Dominion also became the eighth state to clear $2 billion in taxable sportsbook revenue with the bumper August.
All about those gains
The Virginia Lottery does not publish handle and revenue figures by operator in its monthly releases, but noted 10 operators finished with positive AGR for tax purposes. The success of the Washington Commanders — who reached the NFC title game last year — may have led to a run on futures wagers for them reaching or winning Super Bowl LX. In turn, such wagers would drive the monthly hold higher as those bets are counted as revenue for August.
In terms of anecdotal evidence to that effect, Virginia’s three retail sportsbooks combined for an eye-watering 24.6% hold as they claimed $957,900 from $3.9 million handle. Their mobile counterparts also steamrolled the public to the tune of a 12.3% win rate.
Year-over-year handle surged 22.4% while gross revenue spiked 56.6% higher as this year’s win rate was up 2.7 percentage points. That furthered the year-to-date growth in both categories, with the 21.2% increase in gross revenue to $513.1 million outpacing the 12% bounce in wagering to $4.61 billion.
Over in another commonwealth …
Kentucky was yet another state where sportsbooks notched a double-digit hold for August as the state’s Horse Racing Commission showed an 11.7% win rate against $193.1 million worth of wagers.
That hold was nearly 3.7 percentage points higher than last year, and when combined with the 27.5% increase in handle, the $22.6 million in gross revenue climbed 85.9% higher versus August 2024. There was slightly less loss carryover among Bluegrass State sportsbooks as the $22.1 million AGR was up 87.8%. The state re-directed $3.1 million of that to its coffers.
FanDuel and DraftKings were a runaway 1-2, combining for $16.5 million of that gross revenue haul. FanDuel claimed nearly $8.4 million thanks to a near-14% hold on $60.2 million worth of wagers, while DraftKings topped the nine mobile books in handle at $71.4 million and collected $8.1 million with an 11.3% win rate.
Bet365 was the only other operator with an eight-figure handle at $20.4 million, and its 7.9% hold produced $1.6 million in revenue. Fanatics had the best win rate of the nine at 14.1%, which allowed it to claim $1.3 million in winnings from $8.9 million worth of wagers and pip Caesars and BetMGM for fourth.
Caesars and BetMGM were separated by roughly $13,500 in handle as both neared $9.7 million, but Caesars came out the better of the pair thanks to a 10.3% hold. It finished with $996,030 compared to BetMGM’s $763,876 on its 7.9% win rate. ESPN Bet had its fourth straight month with a double-digit hold at 11.1%, but a 13.4% dip in handle to $5.5 million put a drag on still-solid revenue growth of 60.4% to $612,756.
August marked the first full month of operations for Prime Sportsbook in Kentucky, where it will compete for no-limit action with Circa Sports. Prime reported $430,170 in handle and finished with a 2.1% hold for just under $9,000 in revenue. Circa’s year-over-year handle was practically flat at $1.3 million, but its 4.9% win rate led to $65,167 — a 183.2% increase.
