Digital Wager Wire highlights the most important events impacting the domestic and international sports betting and gaming industry each week throughout the year.
Virginia Sports Betting Biz Booming
October proved to be a beehive of activity at Virginia’s mobile sportsbooks, and a new handle record was set of $696 million. However, the ink was barely dry on that milestone when betting heated up once again and surpassed $700 million in accepted wagers for the first time in Old Dominion’s history.
When the month ended and the receipts were tallied, Virginia reported a record-shattering handle of $760.9 million in November, a year-over-year increase of 19.1% and 9.3% higher than the previous month. Online sportsbooks generated over 99% of the action, with only $4.2 million of the nearly $761 million being wagered at retail sportsbooks.
But in the most important category, revenues also soared on a historic handle and an impressive hold of 11.3%, which produced $80 million in combined revenue for the state’s sportsbooks, with $12.1 million earmarked for Virginia’s tax coffers. It should also be noted that 10 of the state’s 12 licensed mobile sportsbooks showed a profit in November.
Sporttrade Comes to Virginia
British bookmaker Betfred recently exited the Virginia market, but Camden, New Jersey’s Sporttrade, was welcomed as one of the Commonwealth’s newest sports betting licensees. This is Sporttrade’s fifth online sports betting market, along with New Jersey, Colorado, Iowa, and Arizona.
“We are incredibly proud to keep the Fall 2024 momentum going with our launch in the Commonwealth,” said Alex Kane, founder and CEO of Sporttrade. “There is an appetite for premium betting in Virginia, for significantly better prices at higher limits, for instant in-play betting, and a mobile experience that’s sleek and intuitive.
“Sporttrade is becoming the home of in-game betting, where players are able to place and cash out of bets, frictionlessly, as the probabilities shift,” added Kane. “Thank you to the Virginia Lottery, thank you to our players, partners, and investors, and most of all, I want to thank the Sporttrade family of employees.”
New Hampshire Considering Raising Minimum Betting Age
New Hampshire’s motto, “Live Free or Die,” signals to the rest of the nation that it will play by its own rules and allow its citizens to reside with as little government interference as possible. But Granite State legislators are rethinking the minimum age to place a bet, which is currently available to those 18 and older.
State representatives Sallie Fellows (D) and Michael Cahill (D) co-sponsored HB-83, a bill to raise the minimum gambling age to 21, which recently went before the House Ways and Means Committee. The raised minimum age is expected to bring a projected loss of $640,000.
This recent event may not sit well with the state’s sole sports betting provider, DraftKings, that pays a national high of 51% of its profits to the state to maintain that exclusivity. New Hampshire is one of the least populated states, ranking 41st with not even 1.4 million residents. Considering that the pool of potential bettors will be thinned of 18-, 19-, and 20-year-olds, that would leave DraftKings with a smaller universe of customers and may prompt them to reconsider their deal with the state that renews every two years.
