Sports betting operators in states around the country benefitted from high volumes and house-friendly results in November and Virginia was no different.
Virginia sportsbooks reported a record $48.3 million in gross sports betting revenue in November. That’s despite handle dropping 5.8% from October‘s record to $402.6 million.
The drop in handle is not a surprise. October had five full Friday through Sunday weekends compared to four in November, which meant fewer NFL betting and college football betting opportunities.
Even more important for operators than an extra weekend, though, was a swing in results. While October’s were bettor friendly some of those profits were given back in November with a 12.0% hold, according to the Virginia Lottery report.
Virginia is the 18th US sports betting jurisdiction to report November results and the 16th to report a monthly revenue record.
Limited November details for VA sportsbooks
As usual, there is little known about how the state’s 10 live sportsbooks performed in an individual month. The Virginia Lottery offers a running total at its quarterly meetings, the next of which is scheduled for Jan 12.
The last update from October had FanDuel Sportsbook leading all operators with 45.4% of all handle from launch through September. DraftKings Sportsbook and BetMGM were the only other two operators with more than 10% handle share at 26.1% and 17.9%, respectively.
The lottery did break out that there were nearly $15 million in promos handed out during the month. After another $3.4 million in “other” deductions, adjusted gross revenue shook out to $29.9 million.
While sports betting revenue is taxed at 15%, not all operators have paid into that just yet. Only four reported net positive adjusted gross revenue for November, which led to the $4.2 million in taxes paid.
Virginia in top 10 for handle, revenue
For now, Virginia ranks seventh in handle and fifth in revenue in November.
| State | Nov. 2021 handle | Nov. 2020 handle | Difference | Nov. 2021 revenue | Nov. 2020 revenue | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| New Jersey | $1,258,189,436 | $931,620,415 | 35.1% | $114,788,726 | $50,544,535 | 127.1% |
| Nevada | $1,086,010,454 | $609,376,849 | 78.2% | $71,971,000 | $61,807,000 | 16.4% |
| Pennsylvania | $761,574,597 | $491,910,713 | 54.8% | $84,921,693 | $48,500,443 | 75.1% |
| Michigan | $500,521,376 | $25,080,140 | 1895.7% | $58,448,729 | $2,337,638 | 2400.3% |
| Indiana | $463,684,739 | $251,403,994 | 84.4% | $47,654,492 | $25,332,120 | 88.1% |
| Virginia | $402,621,132 | N/A | N/A | $48,337,037 | N/A | N/A |
| Iowa | $287,247,116 | $87,169,919 | 229.5% | $19,746,266 | $8,144,096 | 142.5% |
| Connecticut | $131,729,179 | N/A | N/A | $16,655,205 | N/A | N/A |
| West Virginia | $84,259,419 | $48,532,442 | 73.6% | $7,107,970 | $4,407,576 | 61.3% |
| New Hampshire | $83,168,812 | $46,523,447 | 78.8% | $6,172,586 | $4,770,459 | 29.4% |
| Mississippi | $60,582,141 | $54,443,370 | 11.3% | $9,520,846 | $8,108,102 | 17.4% |
| Rhode Island | $52,747,831 | $35,098,445 | 50.3% | $6,703,144 | $6,281,321 | 6.7% |
| Oregon | $32,673,216 | $25,039,884 | 30.5% | $4,428,658 | $4,116,314 | 7.6% |
| Louisiana | $27,639,592 | N/A | N/A | $5,685,706 | N/A | N/A |
| New York | $21,519,094 | $17,096,321 | 25.9% | $3,956,490 | $2,619,676 | 51.0% |
| Washington DC | $21,419,454 | $17,600,534 | 21.7% | $4,434,922 | $3,611,200 | 22.8% |
| Arkansas | $8,380,191 | $6,288,249 | 33.3% | $1,623,435 | $975,984 | 66.3% |
| Montana | $4,530,000 | $3,180,000 | 42.5% | $879,000 | $465,000 | 89.0% |
| South Dakota | $717,775 | N/A | N/A | $74,919 | N/A | N/A |
| Total | $5,289,215,554 | $2,650,364,722 | 99.6% | $513,110,824 | $232,021,464 | 121.1% |
Those ranks are likely to fall, though, with some big state reports still missing. Colorado should report the first week in January with Illinois likely reporting the following week.
Delaware, Tennessee and Wyoming also still owe reports for November.
So does Arizona, but that could take a while to resolve itself. There is still no report on how Arizona sportsbooks performed in their launch month of September, so November is probably a bit down the line.
