The State of Virginia, one of the newest additions to the rapidly growing US regulated sports betting market made a very impressive showing during its first eleven days of operation. The newly minted official sports betting market clocked in an impressive $60 million over the course of its first 10 days of operation.
Regulated sports betting went live in Virginia on January 21, which turned out to be a pretty awesome period of time to launch a new venture like this in the United States. The new market benefited from peak NFL playoff action ,and plenty of pent up demand, to pull in huge amounts of cash in a very short period.
Officially, the final number turned out to be $58.9 million which was a record first month haul for any US sports betting market. Of that $58.9 million, about $3.6 million churned out as gross gaming revenue. But in a twist that shows how complicated sports betting markets really are, most Virginia sportsbooks actually lost money for the month. That’s because much of their spending was aimed at expensive customer acquisition campaigns.
Dustin Gouker, analyst for PlayVirginia.com, commented on the big debut in a recent statement saying, “The relatively small injection in tax dollars is eye-catching, but significant promotional expenses are a given in a market’s first few days. We saw the very same dynamic play out in the first days of Michigan’s online market, as well. The bottom line is that Virginia’s market is off to a good start, with significant interest from bettors across the state. That will certainly pay off for the state in coming months.”
Operators can expect to see impressive numbers in March, as college basketball tournaments heat up, but expect the action to taper off a bit until NBA playoffs.