Winning: WVU, Marshall And West Virginia Online Sportsbooks Claim Victories

Online sports betting in West Virginia may have started slow, but it is doing just fine. The two WV mobile sports betting apps combined to generate more betting handle than the three active retail sportsbooks for the second week in a row.

DraftKings and FanDuel pulled in just under $4 million in betting handle, while retail locations managed just $3.7 million.

As a whole, WV sportsbooks accepted over $7.7 million in wagers for the week ending Nov. 16. Even though this is a respectable figure for weekly handle, it’s the lowest the state has seen in a month.

While mobile betting apps brought in more wagers, they didn’t exceed retail books in terms of earning revenue.

Sportsbooks made around $775,000 this week in total, with about 36% from online wagering. This is about $150,000 less than they earned a week ago.

Although the WV college football betting is coming to an end, sportsbooks should still see plenty of action this weekend. Both WVU and Marshall play their last regular-season game of 2019 this week.

The Mountaineers travel to TCU in search of their fifth win of the year. In Huntington, Marshall hosts Florida International as it looks to get back in the win column, too.

College basketball is officially back in the mix as well. WVU is off to an incredible 5-0 start and Marshall just nabbed its second victory of the early season.

This week’s report includes activity from Nov. 10-16 from these WV sportsbooks:

• Hollywood Casino Sportsbook and DraftKings Sportsbook
• The Greenbrier and FanDuel Sportsbook
• Mountaineer Sportsbook

WV sports betting revenue highlights

The following are the key takeaways from the Nov. 16 figures:

• Online handle beats retail – again
• Handle takes a dip from last week’s high
• Revenue figures strong considering WV football results

It was just a matter of time until online betting action caught up to retail’s overall betting handle. Now that it has, it seems unlikely that retail sportsbooks will ever reclaim the top spot.

This week marks two in a row that the online options in WV have accepted more bets than retail. Even though it isn’t by a wide margin, two straight weeks is a trend that is sure to continue.

Unless retail locations at the casinos across the state provide incentives for bettors to join them on gameday, then most people will opt for the mobile route. Not to mention, the state is somewhat close to gaining more online sportsbooks in the near future.

Although online handle did better than retail, total handle for the state’s market was down this week. This is the first time handle has dipped below $8 million in three weeks and the lowest handle in WV since mid-October.

Of course $7.7 million in bets is not a bad week by any standards, but it will be interesting to see if the handle plateaus or jumps back over $8 in the coming weeks.

Revenue figures may have only been around $775,000, however, it could have been a much worse week for sportsbooks. Both WVU and Marshall football won and covered the spread for the week of the 16th.

The Mountaineers won outright as two-touchdown underdogs at Kansas State. Marshall had a successful week as well. It easily covered and beat Louisiana Tech by 21 points at home.

Typically, when both football programs win and cover the spread, the WV revenue figures are significantly lower. Apparently the sportsbooks earned some of the money back through the NFL and other wagers.

WV Sports Betting Summary

Here are the latest figures released by the WV Lottery Commission since WV sports betting revenue tracking began in August 2018:

• Handle: $225,197,200.41
• Revenue: $22,780,377.96
• Taxes: $2,278,037.80

Despite being a fairly busy week at sportsbooks, figures were down. Overall handle hit only $7,705,628.83, which is an 8% drop from the previous week.

Revenue figures were slower as well. Sportsbooks earned $776,857.90, a 16% decrease from the week prior.

WV sports betting revenue for the week ending Nov. 16, 2019

A Closer Look At WV Sports Betting Handle

The Hollywood Casino was one of the few sportsbooks that had a quality week. It led the way with a total of over $5 million in bets.

Although this week’s figure didn’t match Hollywood’s best week, it was fairly close. Its sportsbook has now taken more than $5 million in wagers in three of the last four weeks.

Hollywood has also seen its handle increase in each of the last two weeks. Its handle this week is about $32,000 more than last.

Part of Hollywood’s success has been due to its online platform with DraftKings Sportsbook. The online betting app had its best week to date in regards to handle by eclipsing $2.2 million for the first time.

The Greenbrier came in second with more than $1.8 million in handle. This is its sportsbook’s worst performance in three weeks.

Similar to Hollywood, The Greenbrier’s mobile affiliate has been doing great. Its FanDuel Sportsbook accounted for 95% of its total handle for the week.

The just over $100,000 in handle from The Greenbrier’s retail sportsbook is its worst showing in seven weeks.

Mountaineer came in last among the active books with around $820,000. Its lack of an online sportsbook is becoming more clear each week as its handle has been struggling of late.

This is now the fifth straight week that its handle has reduced. The $820,000 is Mountaineer’s lowest handle in 10 weeks.

Here’s how the WV sportsbooks rank for weekly handle:

1. Hollywood Casino ($5,033,232.54)
2. The Greenbrier ($1,851,108.79)
3. Mountaineer Casino ($821,287.50)
4. Mardi Gras Casino ($0)
5. Wheeling Island ($0)

A Closer Look At WV Sports Betting Revenue

Revenue figures were in the black again this week, but they weren’t overwhelmingly impressive. Hollywood Casino led in revenue by generating more than $525,000.

This is two straight weeks in which its sportsbook has netted at least $500,000 after losing over $1.2 million the week of Nov. 2.

Unlike last week when Hollywood’s online book was responsible for the majority of the revenue, it was its retail location that did the heavy lifting this time. Its DraftKings book only earned around $140,000.

The Greenbrier finished in second place with a little over $150,000. Just like the handle breakdown, its mobile sportsbook made most of the revenue for this week. In fact, The Greenbrier’s retail book earned less than $14,000.

Mountaineer Casino came in third with just shy of $100,000. This is actually its sportsbook’s best showing in three weeks.

While the football season certainly helped Mountaineer for handle and revenue, figures may be reducing soon with the season coming to a close. Mountaineer needs to launch its own online sportsbook soon before it falls too far behind.

Here’s how the WV sportsbooks rank for weekly revenue:

1. Hollywood Casino ($529,587.37)
2. The Greenbrier ($151,401.13)
3. Mountaineer Casino ($95,869.40)
4. Mardi Gras Casino ($0)
5. Wheeling Island ($0)

On the board for WV Sportsbooks

WV college football betting odds

College football bettors need to get their wagers in this week as this weekend marks the final WV college football games for the regular season. WVU will look to end the year on a high note with a win at TCU.

Marshall football plays FIU at home with hopes it can improve its December-bowl bid.

Here are both games’ odds provided by the two online sports betting apps in the state, DraftKings and FanDuel:

WV betting odds for NFL Week 13

Though the NFL has a few more weeks left to its regular season, there isn’t much time left for teams on the outside looking in. Now that bye weeks are over, NFL bettors can enjoy 16 games each week until the end of the year.

Here are the Week 13 odds for the local teams according to DraftKings and FanDuel: