October has certainly been a surprisingly profitable month for the sports betting industry. The newest state to shatter their sports betting sales record for this month in is Virginia.
Sets Record
Virginia’s October betting handle amounted to a whopping $427.3 million. The state also set another record; Virginia is now the fastest state in US history to reach $2 billion in lifetime wagers.
Dann Stupp, the lead analyst for PlayVirginia.com, talked about the influencing factors behind this huge revenue month for Virginia. “
With a calendar that included an extra weekend of NFL and college football, the opening of the NBA and NHL seasons, and baseball’s postseason, October was the best opportunity so far for Virginia sportsbooks and the results did not disappoint,” he said, “A strong start to the football season shows a maturing market with an increasing number of operators launching and a base of bettors that are increasingly comfortable with online sports betting.”
October Handle
Virginia’s October handle of $427.3 million in bets broke March’s previous record of $304.1 million. The October handle was also up over 45% from September’s $293.9 million handle.
Due to the five full weekends of NFL, college football, MLB, NBA, college basketball, et cetera, a lot of states broke sales and handle records during the month of October. Play Virginia made an interesting and notable observation that the success of local sports played a role in the breaking of this record as well.
This pertains strictly to NFL football. The two local teams of the DC/Metro/Virginia area are the Baltimore Ravens and the Washington Football Team.
The Ravens started off their season strong and continue to keep themselves at the top spot in the AFC North, enjoying more success than they have seen in a long time. The Washington Football Team, despite a rather sloppy start, has rallied these past few weeks and are now very much in the playoff race in the NFC East.
Local Interest Rises
The success and exciting seasons of these two local teams have certainly boosted local interest in both the sport and in terms of gambling.
Eric Ramsey, an analyst for the PlayUSA.com Network, said that the success of these teams is a great catalyst for more business in the sports betting and gambling industry.
“It’s hard to imagine a better start for Virginia’s sports betting industry,” he said, “The brisk action over the last two months is raising the bar for the entire market, too. Not only are more Virginians betting, but they are expanding their interest in less conventional wagers such as in-game betting.”
According to Gamlbing.com, the nine licenced sportsbook operators in Virginia are Betfair Interactive US (FanDuel Sportsbook); Crown Virginia Gaming LLC (DraftKings Sportsbook); BetMGM; Rivers Portsmouth Gaming (Rivers Casino Portsmouth); Caesars Virginia (William Hill); WSI US (Wynn); Unibet Interactive Inc.; Penn Sports Interactive; and Golden Nugget Online Gaming VA.
The sports betting industry in the state of Virginia has done remarkably well. With the success of the two local NFL teams, there is nowhere to go but up for this industry.
