Virginia Lottery To Accept Sports Betting License Applications From October

Virginia legalized sports betting back in April 2020 and the law came into effect from July 1, 2020. The Virginia Lottery will be responsible for issuing sports betting licenses and has confirmed that interested betting operators can send in their license applications from October 15.

Some states have started out with only retail sports betting while others have decided to go with retail and online betting at the same time.

Virginia will start out with online and mobile sports betting initially and later look to offer retail sports betting should it get the necessary approval.

There will be at least 11 betting operators in Virginia and a max of 14 betting operators.

The regulations allow for as many as 9 individual betting operators or operators who partner with a pro team. There will be a max of 5 betting operators who have the option to partner with casinos in the state.

The Virginia Lottery has confirmed that there will be a total of 6 different license applications available on its website. Sports betting operators will have to pay $250,000 for an operating licence; suppliers will have to pay $125,000 for a sports betting platform and suppliers or principal applicants that have no sports betting platform will have to pay $50,000.

Expect the top betting operators in the country to jump in on the licensing process. Some of the operators expected to apply include DraftKings, FanDuel, PointsBet and FoxBet.

Retail Sportsbooks Will Follow Soon

Virginia is in the process of developing its land based casinos industry as there are 5 casinos that have been mentioned in the same gaming laws that permitted the launch of mobile sports betting. The 5 casino locations are in Richmond, Danville, Bristol, Portsmouth and Norfolk.

Residents in these 5 locations will have to vote in November and confirm whether they want land based casinos to be developed in their respective locations. Hard Rock has partnered with Briston, Rush Street Gaming has partnered with Portsmouth and Caesars has partnered with Danville.

The Pamunkey Indian Tribe has expressed interest in acquiring land in Richmond and Norfolk to set up tribal casinos. These 5 casinos will have the option of launching sports betting at their casinos as well as an online sportsbook.

Should voters give them the green light in November, bettors in Virginia will have a number of options when it comes to sports betting sites in 2021.