It’s been about six months since the application period to expand Virginia sports betting opened – and the first winner is now known.
PointsBet won one of the five remaining licenses to launch a sportsbook in Virginia. That’s according to the Virginia Lottery’s approval page, which updated Monday to include a temporary supplier license for PointsBet.
When the brand will launch and start competing with the other nine online Virginia sportsbooks is unclear. PointsBet did not immediately respond when asked about a launch timeline.
VA sports betting getting more operators soon
According to a meeting at the end of October, there could be six additional sportsbooks live in Virginia by the end of the first quarter.
The first was expected to be Bally Bet, which the Lottery’s Deputy Director of Gaming Compliance Gina Smith estimated would happen in mid-November.
Bally Bet is not a new name, though. It was one of three sportsbooks approved back in March but its merger with Gamesys delayed its major US sports betting plans.
There are still four unknown winners from the 18 applications submitted in May. Some of those could launch this year to acquire customers through NFL betting while others will look at 2022, Smith said:
“We are currently working with the five operators that we are going to move forward and we expect to award some type of permits in the upcoming months. The operators, some of them want to go live prior to the end of the year, some of them are in the early first quarter of next year.”
Not the only pending PointsBet launch
Virginia is a booming sports betting market. In just over eight months, sportsbooks have taken nearly $2 billion in bets, including $293.9 million in September.
That said, it’s far from the most important state on PointsBet’s plate. PointsBet is one of the nine winners of a mobile New York sports betting license.
Those nine operators could be in a race to launch first since sportsbooks can basically go live as soon as they have servers live in one of the state’s four commercial casinos.
They also might not be racing anywhere if Sen. Joe Addabbo Jr. gets his wish. Addabbo plans to ask the New York State Gaming Commission to set a firm launch date for every operator, according to PlayNY.
