West Virginia Sportsbooks Win Big As WVU Fails To Cover

Another week of sports betting in West Virginia produced another $6.5 million in total handle. Since online sportsbooks have returned to the Mountain State, bettors have increased their action significantly.

This is now the third straight week that WV sportsbooks have accepted at least that amount of wagers. Overall, the week of Oct. 5 marks the fifth consecutive week sportsbooks have received over $6 million in bets.

While this week improved upon the previous week, the $6.6 million in wagers is just the second most ever in WV.

More impressive than the handle is the amount of revenue that was generated. Sportsbooks earned more than $1.2 million in revenue, also the second-highest the state has ever seen.

It’s tough to determine just exactly how much the WVU Mountaineers‘ loss and failure to cover this week absolutely influenced the revenue figures. Of course, when WVU doesn’t cover the spread, that means a lot of gamblers probably lost their money to the sportsbook.

Despite competing for the entire game, the Mountaineers narrowly lost the week of Oct. 5 to the Texas Longhorns. Unfortunately, their 11-point loss let many WVU backers down as well.

Bettors have plenty of opportunities to make it up, though, as the college football season continues with a full slate of games this weekend.

The Mountaineers travel to Oklahoma on Saturday, while Marshall will head south to play Florida Atlantic. Both teams are listed as underdogs, as each will try to get a win and move to 4-3 for the season.

This week’s report includes activity from Sept. 29 – Oct. 5 from these WV sportsbooks:

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

WV sports betting revenue highlights

The following are the key takeaways from the Oct. 5 figures:

• Overall handle is hitting a plateau
• WVU football results directly affect revenue
• Online sportsbooks set new highs for revenue

Although sportsbooks in the state are doing significantly better than they have at any other point, it seems as though the betting handle might have hit a plateau. There is nothing bad about accepting over $6 million in bets for the state, but that figure has not increased all too much recently.

The return of online sportsbooks during the football season has certainly jolted the WV market to new heights, but from the last few reports, it’s possible that it may not go up much further.

As for revenue, it’s clear that the WVU games have a strong impact on the weekly numbers. For the week of Sept. 21, the Mountaineers covered in their win against Kansas. Sportsbooks only made around $550,000.

Now this week, with a loss and a Texas cover, sportsbooks earned over $1.2 million.

The WV sportsbooks might not enjoy having the Mountaineers games controlling their fate this much, but it seems evident that this will continue going forward.

DraftKings and FanDuel seemed to have benefitted from the WVU loss, too. They both set new records in terms of revenue this week.

DraftKings pulled in almost $275,000 and FanDuel earned around $180,000. These are both new records for their mobile sports betting apps.

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: $178,730,632.66
• Revenue: $19,194,523.75
• Taxes: $1,919,452.52

Sports bettors in WV were busy again this week. Total handle reached $6,610,950.70, a 2% increase from the week prior.

Revenue figures did even better. Sportsbooks brought in $1,272,940.48, which is 57% better than the previous week.

WV sports betting revenue for the week ending Oct. 5, 2019

A Closer Look At WV Sports Betting Handle

As the overall numbers for handle look similar to weeks’ past, so does the individual breakdown. Hollywood Casino led again with over $4 million in bets.

Even though it accepted more than $4.3 million in handle, this is Hollywood’s worst performance in a month.

While it didn’t do that great, The Greenbrier did. The Greenbrier landed in second once again as the only other sportsbook to take over $1 million in wagers.

The almost $1.3 million this week is The Greenbrier’s highest recorded handle ever.

The only active sportsbook without a mobile platform to help is Mountaineer Casino. In spite of no online book, Mountaineer nearly topped $1 million. The retail sportsbook is doing a great job of getting people in the door to keep up with the online options in WV.

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

1. Hollywood Casino ($4,337,584.38)
2. The Greenbrier ($1,298,485.50)
3. Mountaineer Casino ($974,880.82)
4. Mardi Gras Casino ($0)
5. Wheeling Island ($0)

A Closer Look At WV Sports Betting Revenue

Sportsbooks had a tremendous week for generating revenue. This is actually the second time in the last five weeks that sportsbooks made over $1.2 million.

Hollywood led in revenue as well with over $1 million just by itself. It beat its revenue from last week by about $400,000.

Part of that reason is its DraftKings mobile app. The online sportsbook accounted for almost $275,000 of Hollywood’s total figure.

The Greenbrier set a new best for revenue to go along with its handle record. This is the first time that the resort has hit $200,000 in revenue.

The majority of its revenue stream has come from its FanDuel online sportsbook. More than $180,000 came in from its mobile app.

Mountaineer finished in third with about just $60,000. This is its sportsbook’s worst revenue showing in seven weeks.

Although neither is opened for business, Wheeling Island and Mardi Gras Casino paid out some settled wagers. They lost a combined $2,200 this week.

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

1. Hollywood Casino ($1,005,519.35)
2. The Greenbrier ($209,415.96)
3. Mountaineer Casino ($60,271.17)
4. Mardi Gras Casino (-$499.00)
5. Wheeling Island (-$1,767.00)

On the board for WV Sportsbooks

WV football

Betting on WVU football is back in full swing this weekend with WVU and Marshall taking to the field. Both are looking to notch their fourth win of 2019.

Here are the latest odds for college football week 8 for the WVU Mountaineers and Marshall Thundering Herd. (Last updated on Oct. 17, 2019, with current WVU football and Marshall odds):