Unibet will be the seventh sportsbook to begin accepting wagers in the state of Virginia, with its expected Wednesday launch coming less than one week after the state Lottery granted it a direct market access mobile sports betting license.
Virginia will be the fourth state where Unibet can take bets, joining New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Indiana. In Virginia, it joins a steadily growing field of operators that includes FanDuel, DraftKings, BetRivers, William Hill, BetMGM and WynnBET. Unibet also has market agreements for access in eight other states.
Virginia awards Kindred Group a direct market access mobile sports betting permit https://t.co/D9UpO7zVqi
— Kindred Group (@KindredGroup) April 22, 2021
“We are excited to add Virginia to the growing list of states that Unibet and Kindred Group call home as we continue our expansion in the U.S. market,” Kindred Group Senior Vice President Manuel Stan said after being granted the license Thursday. “Our aim is to go live shortly and we expect that the success we have seen in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Indiana will of course follow in Virginia.
“We are very grateful to the Virginia Lottery for awarding us one of the seven stand-alone mobile sports betting permits in a very competitive process. We look forward to opening an office in Virginia, which will function as our third hub together with our offices in New York and New Jersey. We are thrilled to continue our journey in what we believe will become the largest gambling market in the world.”
Virginia, which currently has a digital-only sports betting scene as cities begin to construct and approve casinos, has shown early promise as a potential large player for sports wagering. While March’s numbers have yet to be publicly released, a presentation by the Virginia Lottery Board last week showed that $628 million in bets have been placed since launch.
That would put March’s handle at slightly more than $304 million, a 14.4% increase from February’s total of nearly $265.8 million in its first full month of operation. Though March continued a run of heavy promotional play that typically comes with launching in a new state, operators finished with an overall positive adjusted gross revenue as the presentation showed FanDuel, DraftKings, and BetMGM combined for $1.2 million in tax payments for the month.
