The Virginia Lottery has released the state’s sportsbooks sales data for August, revealing sales increases following a slump in July.
Sportsbook wagers sales jumped to $182.4m in August, an increase of 12.7% on the $161.9m generated in July.
Summer months are typically slow for US sportsbooks as the major sports take their respective off-seasons, however, the betting pace grew to $5.9m per day compared to July’s $5.2m per day.
Wager growth, the analytic company PlayVirginia claims, stems from early-season football wagers along with sales of baseball wagers.
“Baseball did much of the heavy lifting in August, but NFL futures betting, preseason football, and a small sampling of college games make a significant difference for sportsbooks,” said Dann Stupp, lead analyst for PlayVirginia.com.
“Seeing any gain is a breath of fresh air after what was the typical slow period for the industry. But August’s gains are just a foreshadow for what will certainly be the busiest stretch since Virginia launched sports betting in January.”
Despite the sales increase, GGR for August dropped by 10% from $20m to $18m. Furthermore, sales figures remain significantly lower than the record set in March 2021 in which Virginia sportsbooks raised $304.1m in wagers and $26m in GGR.
However, forecasts and expectations for the rest of the year are positive as the NFL season and college football begins. The Lottery eagerly pointed out that “60.2% of the money wagered legally in the US was placed from September through December.”
“We are entering the most important four months for Virginia’s sports betting industry, and it will be exciting to see how Virginia bettors respond to a full schedule of football,” added Eric Ramsey, analyst for the PlayUSA.com Network, which includes PlayVirginia.com.
“It is a great bet that from September through the end of the year, the commonwealth’s sportsbooks will shatter just about every record that was set earlier this year.”