When you’ve been waiting years to be able to legally place bets, it’s clear a fair few bets are going to be made. That’s been the case in the state of Virginia, USA. They have become the quickest to break through the $1 billion in sports bets.
It took them just four months to get through that magic figure. The previous best was in Tennessee who took all of six months to reach the $1 billion mark.
The first sportsbook in Virginia was run by FanDuel and began in January. That’s a great time to launch a sportsbook as the NFL season reaches its climax. Everyone wanted to be placing bets on the Super Bowl so a good first month was always on the cards.
However, the desire to be placing sports bets continued to grow even after the NFL season came to an end. The months that followed January are periods when the amount bet on sport tends to slow down, yet that wasn’t the case in Virginia. More sportsbooks opened in the state and their best figures were recorded in March.
May saw an average of $7.3 million being bet every single day. That’s an impressive figure but down from an average of $7.9 million in the previous month. Figures are starting to fall but that was to be expected. The NBA Finals take place this month so that should bring in plenty of bets. Then it’s just a case of counting down the days until the soccer leagues in Europe start again in August and the new NFL season begins in September.
2018 saw a game changing ruling made by an US Supreme Court Judge. He ruled that it was possible for individual states to decide whether or not to legalize gambling. Virginia wanted to do so but it took them two attempts before being able to legalize sports betting in their state.
The first try at legalizing gambling failed with no agreement on regulating spots betting. More study was needed so at least the door wasn’t firmly shut in its face. April 2020 finally saw changes being made to the law.
Years ago, the NFL had been campaigning to keep sports betting illegal. They feared the integrity of their sport being threatened. That’s all changed with Washington Football Team owner Dan Snyder even offering to build a new stadium in either Virginia or Maryland if sports betting was legalized.
With $1 billion worth of bets being made, that’s going to create millions in tax revenue. That’s a big incentive for other states to finally legalize sports betting.
