West Virginia Online Gaming Rebounds in February; Sports Betting Down

The West Virginia online gaming figures bounced back nicely in February after a decline to begin the new year.

The iGaming handle in February was $222,235,429.

That was a 15.7% hike compared to January, when the iGaming handle was $192,135,878.

February’s revenue from online gaming was $8,013,328, a 17.3% boost from the $6,832,236 in January, according to figures reported by the West Virginia Lottery.

West Virginia is a rarity in that it calculates iGaming and sports betting revenue and handle figures weekly rather than monthly. That can cause imbalance because sometimes what is considered a month will actually be five weeks, but in this case January and February figures each had four weeks. The February reporting period was Jan. 30 to Feb. 26; January numbers were counted from Jan. 2-29.

West Virginia is one of six states with real money online gaming options, along with Delaware, Michigan, Connecticut, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

West Virginia iGaming Market Growing

The online gaming options in the Mountaineer State are growing.

Last week, BetMGM Casino announced that it would be bringing Wizard Games content to West Virginia.

And PointsBet, which already had an online sportsbook in West Virginia, also has joined the state’s online casino market.

Sports Betting Declines in February

The sports betting market fell in February, which should come as little surprise because the Super Bowl was the only meaningful NFL game available last month for bettors in the football-crazy state.

West Virginia Sports Betting, February vs. January

Note: West Virginia reports numbers weekly rather than by calendar month. February represents Jan. 30 to Feb. 26; January represents Jan. 2-29.

The sports betting handle was $49,271,583 in February, down 16.3% from January’s $58.9 million. But the year-over-year comparison was better news in West Virginia, as the handle was 28.9% higher than February 2021 ($38.2 million).

The picture was pretty similar for mobile wagering, with the handle down 14.3% from January’s $48.1 million to February’s $41.2 million. Again, last month’s figure was a significant boost from 12 months earlier (52.2% higher than the $27.1 million in February 2021).

The sports betting revenue was $1,954,999, down 52.3% from January ($4.1 million) but a 43.3% increase from February 2021 ($1.4 million). The state share of taxes was $195,500, down 43.9% from January ($348,342) but up 43.3% from February 2021 ($136,416).