West Virginia officially has sports betting, including online wagering, in 2020.
West Virginia sports betting has been live since August 2019. It was the fifth state in the U.S. To legalize sports betting, and although online sports betting was technically launched in 2018, a lengthy outage meant it never got fully on track until 2019. Best sports betting apps, bonus offers and legal betting sites in WV West Virginia sports betting is in full bloom. The Mountain State, one of the earliest adopters of wagering on sports after the fall of PASPA. DraftKings Sportsbook users in West Virginia are able to bet on dozens of American and international sports, with many different ways to get in on the action. The company offers many different ways to get in on the action. Live, in-game betting, and Teasers+ give DraftKings Sportsbook users a unique sports betting experience. WV online sports betting is a reality, and West Virginia online casinos and online poker rooms appear to be on the way. We will see how much of a success a fully regulated WV online gambling market will be. It might be an uphill battle in a state with such a small population and low median income.
FanDuel Sportsbook is live with its sports betting app in West Virginia as of August 2019. DraftKings Sportsbook joined FanDuel a few days later and is live as well, giving West Virginians access to two of the most popular sportsbooks outside of Nevada. Most recently, BetMGM joined the market.
The Mountain State became the fifth in the US to offer legal sports betting in August 2018, following New Jersey, Delaware, Mississippi, and Nevada. It became the third with legal online sports betting as of December 2018, though it endured a six-month outage in 2019 before finally returning to service.
West Virginia Sports Betting in 2021
| Casino | Operator | Online / Mobile | Retail offered? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hollywood Casino at Charles Town | DraftKings Sportsbook | Live as of Aug. 2019 | Yes |
| The Greenbrier (private) | FanDuel Sportsbook | Live as of Aug. 2019 | Yes |
| The Greenbrier (private) | BetMGM Sportsbook | Live as of Jan. 2020 | No |
| Mardi Gras | IGT | Suspended since March 2019 | Yes |
| Wheeling Island | IGT | Suspended since March 2019 | Yes |
| Mountaineer Casino | William Hill | Not yet | Yes |
Legal sports betting options in West Virginia
If you want to bet on sports in West Virginia, you have a variety of options:
WV sports betting apps
There are currently three online sportsbooks available in the state:
- DraftKings Sportsbook: One of the top betting options in several states, the daily fantasy sports and sportsbook offers a full sports betting app in West Virginia.
- FanDuel Sportsbook: Another DFS company and a top competitor of DraftKings, FanDuel is the leading sportsbook brand across the country right now in terms of amount wagered.
- BetMGM Sportsbook: The app from MGM Resorts International, which operates casinos and sportsbooks around the country, is now live in the state.
Sportsbooks at WV casinos
There are five casinos that can offer WV sports wagering at retail locations
- Hollywood Casino was the first to go live and is the online partner of DraftKings.
- FanDuel is operating the sportsbook at the private resort, The Greenbrier.
- Mountaineer Casino in New Cumberland launched a sportsbook in 2019, but does not have an online platform.
- Mardi Gras Casino and Wheeling Island launched their retail sportsbooks in 2018. They also launched a now-defunct app available via BetLucky.com. After being shuttered for most of 2019, the two properties finally reopened their betting windows in 2020.
Recent WV sports betting news
Wv Online Sports Betting
Diving Deeper Into Election Betting Law After West Virginia Flop
The West Virginia election betting saga involving FanDuel, DraftKings, and BetMGM that unfolded last week sparked a great deal of interest. Read MoreFollowing the recent Supreme Court decision to legalize sports betting in the United States, individual states have been hotly debating legalization in their own jurisdictions.
In addition to West Virginia, states with legal sports betting include:
- Nevada
- New Jersey
- Pennsylvania
- Delaware
- Mississippi
- Rhode Island
This is set to be a great tax earner for each state as residents will no longer be participating in illegal sports betting. It was estimated by the American Gaming Association that $150 billion was illegally wagered on sports events every year in the United States.
West Virginia sports betting
Currently, there are three active sportsbooks in West Virginia:
Additionally, Delaware North, the owner of Wheeling Island Sportsbook and Mardi Gras Casino Sportsbook, is severing ties with its sports betting provider, Miomni after being forced to close operations in March 2019. It is currently on the hunt for a new sports betting provider.
West Virginia was without sports betting for about five months. On Aug. 26, 2019, FanDuel Sportsbook launched its popular sports betting platform bringing mobile betting access to bettors throughout the state.
Two days later, the state doubled its online access when DraftKings Sportsbook went live. Now, the West Virginia online sports betting market has the necessary competition to thrive.
Federal regulations
The Supreme Court brought about full-scale legalization of sports betting when a 6-3 vote overturned a 26-year-old law that prevented the majority of states from providing sports betting to their residents.
The case was being pushed by New Jersey, and it met major resistance along the entire process, with the major sports leagues such as the NBA, NFL, NHL, MLB, and NCAA all lobbying aggressively against the change.
It was on May 14, 2018 that the 1992 bill (called the Bradley Act, or the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act) was finally struck down, which allowed 46 states the power to offer full sports betting.
Wv Online Sports Betting Websites
Nevada had been allowed to offer full sports betting all along, with Montana, Delaware, and Oregon able to provide a limited sports wagering offering as part of their state lotteries under the 1992 bill.
As part of this decision, the power is now in the hands of each individual state to decide if they want to legalize sports betting in their own jurisdiction.
State-level regulations
Although many West Virginia residents could use offshore online casinos, and the state had been debating the introduction of an online lottery, up until this year there was no legal form of online gambling in the state. This has now changed with the introduction of a new bill.
There had been talks in the state since early 2017 about introducing some form of sports betting legislation. It was in March 2018, in anticipation of the Supreme Court decision, that West Virginia finally passed a new sports betting law.
The West Virginia Sports Lottery Wagering Act was easily passed by the state House and Senate. This came despite Governor Jim Justice not signing the bill. The MLB commissioner had called for the bill to be vetoed, but to no avail.
It only took six weeks after its introduction to be passed into law. This law gave permission to five gambling premises in the state to provide sports betting offerings at their locations as well as through mobile apps and other online venues in return for a $100,000 license fee. As per the new bill, “No more than five licenses to operate a gaming facility with West Virginia Lottery sports wagering shall be permitted in this state.”
A West Virginia Lottery sports wagering license “authorizes the operation of West Virginia Lottery sports wagering at locations and through any mobile application or other digital platforms approved by the commission.”
The presence of only five casinos in the state therefore won’t dampen the potential upside of sports betting legalization as players from all areas in West Virginia can now place sports bets online.
There have been subsequent hurdles for sports betting legalization in West Virginia, as Justice wanted to include language that was kinder to sports leagues in the legislation.
He held a summit with sportsbook and casino operators, state universities, and sports leagues to discuss the matter. Calls for universities and sports leagues to receive an integrity fee were eventually shut down by the legislature.
Legal WV sports betting operations
The legalization of online sports betting in West Virginia will help decrease the amount of money the local economy loses as a result of being wagered with illegal operators.
Instead, the state can earn tax revenue from sports betting, which can be used for positive initiatives in the region. Those residents who have used illegal sports betting operators in the past will now have proper protection and can be sure their winning bets will be fulfilled.
While legalizing online gambling makes gambling more accessible and can, therefore, lead to higher levels of problem gambling, those same gamblers could have utilized offshore online gambling platforms in the past just as easily. Legalization will likely not be a catalyst for a rise in problem gambling in the state.
Sports betting and taxes in WV
The tax rate for sports betting revenues in West Virginia has been set at 10%. This is a manageable figure for the license holders compared to other states, and they will not have their profits badly eroded due to a more significant tax rate being implemented.
Wv Online Sports Betting Rules
The 10% tax in West Virginia will be levied on the “licensee’s adjusted gross sports wagering receipts.”