West Virginia iGaming Spikes in August and Sports Betting Performs Too

The West Virginia online gambling market had significant rises in both revenue and handle for August compared to July.

Sports betting in the state recorded even better numbers in month-over-month and year-over-year comparisons.

West Virginia reports its numbers weekly instead of monthly – the July figures are for July 1-30, with July 1 marking the start of the new 2022-23 fiscal year for the West Virginia Lottery. August numbers are for July 31 to Sept. 3, making it a 35-day measurement compared to 30 for July.

Still, the numbers are impressive.

The iGaming revenue in August for the Mountain State was $10,799,771, representing a 27.1% increase from the $8.5 million in the July West Virginia gambling revenue report.

As far as the handle, or amount wagered, is concerned, August saw an 18.2% rise last month. The handle was $327,615,368, up from nearly $277.3 million for July.

Six states offer the best online casinos, with West Virginia in the vanguard of first adaptors. Pennsylvania, Delaware and New Jersey also have maturing markets for iGaming, with Connecticut and Michigan becoming more recent additions.

West Virginia sportsbooks eagerly awaited this weekend’s start of the NFL season. The return of football (don’t forget the betting popularity of college games as well) will be reflected in the September revenue and handle figures.

Nonetheless, August provided a boost.

The total sports betting handle was $33,958,929 in August, a 35.7% spike from about $25 million in July. The year-over-year increase was even bigger, growing 51.9% from the $22.35 million from August 2021. The time period from 12 months earlier was four weeks compared to five in August (one of the quirks of West Virginia’s reporting system) but that alone does not account for an increase that large.

The August mobile sports betting handle was just over $28 million, a 33.5% boost from July ($21 million) and a whopping 69% higher than August 2021 ($16.6 million).

Mobile sports betting has been by far the most popular method of wagering in the state ever since it launched in summer 2019, just as online blackjack and other popular iGaming options such as poker and roulette have been a massive boost to West Virginia’s tax coffers since those games were introduced in July 2020.

Revenue from wagering on sports rose even more sharply, a 54% increase from July’s $2.6 million to August’s $4.03 million. That figure more than doubled the nearly $2 million in revenue from 12 months earlier.

The state share of taxes, which comes to 8.5% of revenue, was $342,536 in August.

The June West Virginia sports betting figures put a pin on a record 2021-22 fiscal year for the state. The total handle from July 1, 2021 to June 30, 2022 was $599.1 million, a 15.6% increase from 2020-21. The revenue for the last fiscal year was almost $45 million.