Virginia Online Sportsbooks will go Live in Time for Super Bowl Sunday
Virginia online Sportsbooks will go live in time for Super Bowl Sunday
That is everyone’s hope, at least. Virginia Lottery has not disclosed yet the “golden dozen” operators who shall secure a license for their sportsbooks. They did not even reveal who the applicants are. A maximum of 12 licenses will be awarded, while 25 applications where submitted. FanDuel Sportsbook had announced a Virginia launch before Christmas 2020. Their DFS platform is already operational there, and you can access it via bet-va.com just as the other big name, DraftKings.
Both are expected to be among the first whose sportsbooks will go live in the second half of January 2021. Does this leave enough time to be up and running by February 7th, when Superbowl is scheduled to occur? A tight squeeze, but the larger operators had been preparing for a long time. “We’re close to the end zone, and soon we will begin to issue the first of the licenses. Once the sportsbooks feel like they’re ready to go, they can go live,” said Virginia Lottery Executive Director Kevin Hall.
The expected revenue of 400 million dollars for 2021 has inspired Virginia to raise the stakes. In the first days of January, a bill was prefiled in the General Assembly that could increase the number of licenses available in the state. Sports Handle quotesthe Virginia Lottery’s Director of Public Affairs and Community Relations Jennifer Mullen: “In the coming weeks, we expect to begin issuing the first sports betting licenses according to the existing law and regulations. If this proposed legislation is successful and takes effect on July 1st, 2021, it potentially would make additional licenses available in the future.”
The legislation allowing sportsbooks to go online was passed in July 2020. Additional regulations took a couple of months to refine. The Virginia Lottery Board was designated to oversee the writing of regulations and published the final list in September. Then it took them two more months of preparations to open a two-week window when sportsbook apps could apply for a license.
This is all great news for fans in Virginia, who will soon be able to play comfortably from home, using mobile apps from the providers who will be granted a license. In addition to FanDuel, some more of them have disclosed that they have applied for licenses. An interesting part of the bill prohibits Virginia Lottery to offer its own sportsbook at a brick-and-mortar location.
As for fantasy sports, Virginia was the first state in America to legalize and regulate them. Paid-entry daily fantasy sports date back to 2016. Players need to be over the age of 18 and geo-located within Virginia to have the ability to play DFS legally. They can choose among four major operators: FanDuel, DraftKings, Yahoo, and Fantasy Draft. The available sports include Fantasy Football, Fantasy Baseball, Fantasy Basketball, Fantasy Hockey, Fantasy Golf, Fantasy Tennis, Fantasy Soccer, Fantasy NASCAR, Fantasy MMA, and Fantasy League of Legends.
