Virginia Sports Betting
Online sports betting is legal in Virginia, and numerous sportsbook brands are licensed to serve customers located within the Commonwealth.
Additionally, licensed Virginia casinos may operate retail sportsbooks.
Virginia online sports betting began in early 2021, and the state’s first retail sportsbook opened in mid-2022.
Licensed Virginia sports betting sites accept customers 21 or older and must comply with consumer protection regulations adopted by the Lottery Board.
Other Virginia online betting options include horse racing betting and daily fantasy sports (DFS). Both activities are legal and regulated by the state. Read on for a complete list of Virginia sportsbooks, new customer betting bonuses, and legal updates.
Legal Virginia Betting Sites




21+ and present in VA. T&Cs Apply. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER.
Virginia Online Sports Betting Apps
The first Virginia betting apps opened in January 2021. FanDuel Sportsbook was the first to launch in Virginia. DraftKings, BetMGM, BetRivers, and others followed suit shortly after.
Virginia law requires the state to issue between 4 and 12 online sports betting licenses. However, that number is deceiving because Virginia sports betting apps launched in conjunction with future retail casinos and professional sports leagues do not count toward the 12-license cap.
As a result, Virginia can support as many as 17 online sports betting apps, and possibly a couple more.
The following sports betting apps are now available in Virginia:
- Bet365 Sportsbook
- BetMGM Sportsbook
- FanDuel Sportsbook
- Caesars Sportsbook
- Fanatics Sportsbook
- BetRivers Sportsbook
- DraftKings Sportsbook
- Hard Rock Bet
- ESPN Bet
- Bally Bet
- Betr
- Sporttrade
The Virginia Lottery Board is responsible for regulating sports betting, issuing licenses, and giving the final approval for online sportsbooks to go live.
Virginia differs from most states with legal sports betting in that it does not require sportsbooks to partner with local casinos or race tracks.
Under state law, the Lottery Board may also approve a limited number of standalone online sportsbooks.
Casinos, professional sports franchises, the operators of major league facilities, and two NASCAR race tracks may also apply for Virginia online sports betting licenses.
Virginia Sports Betting Bonuses
Licensed Virginia betting sites and online sportsbooks offer welcome bonuses to encourage new users to sign up, deposit, and place wagers.
The best Virginia sports betting bonuses tend to take one of several forms:
- Bonus bets: Bonus bets allow users to place a bet with their own money; if the wager loses, the sportsbook refunds it with an equal amount in bonus funds or bet credits.
- First deposit match offers: First deposit promotions give customers bonus money in return for funding their accounts
- First bet match: Similar to a deposit match, except the bet is matched to a bettor’s first wager, and not their first deposit. They also tend to be easier to clear, as any matched bet winnings automatically convert to cash.
Virginia Sports Betting Promotion Regulations
State law does not directly address Virginia betting bonuses, but certain provisions in the law prevent operators from offering misleading promotions.
For example, Virginia’s sports betting law allows the Lottery Director to deny operators’ license renewals if they “lack good character, honesty, or integrity.”
Additionally, Virginia’s sports betting rules require operators to advertise responsibly. VA Code §58.1-4034 (E) states:
In advertising its sports betting operations, a permit holder shall ensure that its advertisements:
1. Do not target person under the age of 21;
2. Disclose the identity of the permit holder;
3. Provide information about or links to resources related to gambling addiction; and
4. Are not misleading to a reasonable person
Virginia Sports Betting Locations
Hard Rock Sportsbook At Hard Rock Casino Bristol
Bristol, the largest city to approve a casino, selected Hard Rock International to build a $400 million casino and resort. Hard Rock opened a temporary casino and sportsbook in July 2022 ahead of a full opening in Summer 2024.
The Hard Rock Bristol sportsbook features staffed betting windows, self-serve wagering kiosks, and large HD TVs. Hard Rock’s proximity to the Tennessee border also makes it ideal for Tennessee bettors who have no retail casino options to place in-person sports wagers.
BetRivers Sportsbook At Rivers Casino Portsmouth
The Rivers Casino Portsmouth sportsbook opened in January 2023 as Virginia’s first permanent sportsbook. It features a massive seating area, a 65-foot-wide LED video wall, additional LED TVs, a digital odds board, teller windows, and self-serve kiosks, all overlooked by a Topgolf suite.
Caesars Sportsbook At Caesars Virginia
Danville, Virginia selected Caesars Entertainment to build a $500 million casino resort featuring a 500-room hotel, more than 1,300 slots, nearly 90 table games, a WSOP poker room, and a Caesars Sportsbook.
Caesars opened a temporary casino in May 2023, featuring a handful of self-serve sports betting kiosks. According to Caesars, the full casino and sportsbook will open sometime in 2024.
The permanent casino will inhabit the old Dan River Mills industrial complex, which has been dormant for over a decade.
Construction of the new facilities began in 2022 and will feature an industrial theme, smokestacks included, to honor the area’s history.
Caesars unveiled its casino renderings in September 2021.
Norfolk Casino
Norfolk partnered with the Pamunkey Indian Tribe to develop a $500 million casino and hotel along the Elizabeth River.
Initially branded Headwaters Resort Casino, the property will feature a 200 room hotel, thousands of slots, hundreds of table games, a retail sportsbook, and an event center.
Of the new Virginia casinos, Norfolk could easily be the most popular. Not only does Norfolk have a population hovering around 250k, but it’s within striking distance of Virginia Beach and Chesapeake, with a collective population of approximately 700k.
The Pamunkey Indian Tribe initially aimed to launch a temporary facility in March 2023, but challenges involving city approvals, the Norfolk Tides stadium, and Amtrak derailed those plans.
However, the Pamunkey Tribe is still moving forward with the project and could open the permanent casino by early 2025.
Virginia Sports Betting Law
The Virginia gambling landscape changed dramatically in early 2020 with the passage of two gaming bills authorizing online sports betting, retail sportsbooks, and the construction of up to five casinos.
SB 384 permits up to twelve standalone online sportsbooks and allows casinos, professional sports venues, and the state’s two NASCAR race tracks to launch online betting platforms.
Virginia casinos may also apply for licenses to offer retail sports betting on their premises.
The Virginia Lottery regulates the Commonwealth’s online sports betting industry.
However, unlike other lottery-run sports betting operations, Virginia is a relatively open market.
Additionally, a reasonable tax rate allows operators to offer generous promotions, competitive betting lines, and appealing sign-up packages.
Virginia sportsbooks are subject to a 15% tax on adjusted gross revenue and a licensing fee of $250,000 plus $50,000 for every principal who controls a 5% or greater stake in the organization.
However, the effective tax rate is materially lower, as sportsbook operators are permitted to deduct expenses related to bettor acquisitions for the first 12 months of operation.
State law previously allowed operators to deduct promotional expenses indefinitely, but lawmakers approved additional language through the state budget in 2022 to limit sportsbooks to one year of deductions.
Legal sports betting in Virginia raised more than $20 million in tax revenue in its first year, off of more than $3.2 billion in total wagering handle, and both numbers have grown every year since.
Key things To Know About Sports Betting In Virginia:
- Online sports betting in Virginia began on Thursday, January 21st, 2021
- The minimum age to participate is 21
- Sportsbooks in Virginia may accept wagers on professional and college sports, the Olympics, and esports
- Virginia sportsbooks may not accept wagers on games involving in-state college teams, prop bets on individual college athletes, wagers on any type of injury, or wagers on officiating calls
- Virginia sports bettors may register and deposit from anywhere but must be located within state lines to place wagers
Later, Virginia passed additional legislation with an unusually narrow scope: banning the phrase “Virginia is for Bettors” in marketing.
State Senator Tommy Norment introduced the bill after hearing an ad on the radio using the phrase.
“Frankly, it annoyed me,” he told a Senate subcommittee. “We’ve spent a lifetime trying to market ‘Virginia is for Lovers.’ I just felt it was trespassing on it.”
The bill instituted a $50,000 fine for using the now-prohibited phrase in advertising.
How Virginia Launched Sports Betting
The launch of the first VA mobile sports betting apps was a multi-part process. It began with the Lottery Board approving additional regulations in September 2020 to implement the new sports betting law.
One month later, the Board began accepting license applications from operators interested in offering sports betting in Virginia.
The Board received licensing requests from 25 operators during the initial application period and had 90 days to decide on each request.
In January 2021, the Board began issuing go-live authorizations to online sportsbook operators, beginning with FanDuel.
Virginia Sports Betting Regulations
Virginia Daily Fantasy Sports

Virginia legalized daily fantasy sports contests in 2016 with legislation implementing a licensing process and consumer protection regulations.
Players 18 or older can play real money fantasy sports contests with licensed operators who are bound by state law to treat customers well and host fair games.
Nearly a dozen daily fantasy sports sites hold Virginia DFS licenses and offer a wide range of contests, including daily fantasy games and prediction contests.
Visit BettingUSA’s Virginia fantasy sports guide for a full list of licensed DFS operators and answers to common questions:
Virginia Horse Racing Betting
Online horse racing betting is legal in Virginia.
Virginia legalized parimutuel wagering in 1988 and issued its first racetrack license to Colonial Downs in 1994. In addition, Great Meadow in The Plains hosts two annual steeplechase events, while the Shenandoah County Fairgrounds holds harness racing every Spring and Fall. All three venues offer trackside pari-mutuel wagering.
Other Virginia horse racing betting options include simulcasting at off-track betting facilities and advance deposit wagering through licensed online racebooks.
The Virginia Racing Commission has issued licenses to multiple horse racing betting sites, with the most prominent being TwinSpires.
Virginia Online Gambling
Virginia has not yet legalized online gambling, but the legislature is discussing the issue increasingly frequency. Although an effort to regulate online casinos in Virginia was shelved in 2025, there are multiple indicators the legislature is receptive to the idea but wants to study the issue more carefully before advancing specific legalization bills.
Read more about online gambling in Virginia, including sweepstakes casinos as an alternative below:
Virginia Online Poker
Virginia has not yet legalized online poker, but it’s not for lack of effort.
Two court cases and a piece of legislation that made it through the Senate may have legalized Virginia online poker sites had history turned out a bit differently.
One case involved a man who ran poker halls in Virginia up until 2010.
The Portsmouth District Attorney ordered Charles Daniels to close his poker halls down, and the man decided to fight it in court. The case received significant coverage in poker media and eventually went to the Virginia Supreme Court.
The central question around which the case revolved was whether or not poker was a game of skill.
With the help of the Poker Player’s Alliance and WSOP winner Greg Raymer, Daniels argued that poker was just as much a contest of skill as any other game.
Poker players across the state closely watched the case as the court’s ruling could open the doors for poker in Virginia.
In the end, the Virginia Supreme Court threw out the case because it felt Charles Daniels didn’t have standing.
A separate case between George Pitsilides and the Virginia government looked more promising. He faced three felony charges for running a poker game and decided to fight the charges on the grounds that poker is a game of skill.
George’s case also fizzled in late 2013.
Prosecutors agreed to drop the three felony charges and instead charge him with two misdemeanors. He received no jail time and surrendered nearly $280,000 in cash and gambling supplies.
Finally, a bill to classify poker as a game of skill made it further than any other such bill in Virginia.
Senate Bill 1400 was introduced in January of 2017 and made it through to a full vote in the Senate, which it passed. The bill then moved over to the house and died there.
This bill itself did not seek to legalize online poker sites, but its objective of classifying poker as a game of skill would do much to advance the likelihood of Virginia online poker becoming legal.
Virginia Online Lottery
The Virginia Lottery was authorized by a public vote in 1987 and then launched in 1989 where it contributes hundreds of millions of dollars towards education every year.
The Virginia Online Lottery launched online and mobile ticket sales in 2020 for customers 18 and older.
Players can visit valottery.com to download the official Virginia Lottery mobile app to buy tickets to draw games, play instant win games for real money payouts, check winning numbers, and see current jackpots.
Responsible Gambling in Virginia
Various Virginia sports betting regulations require licensed operators to prevent access to online sportsbooks by minors and people who have self-excluded, provide easy methods for customers to close their accounts, post responsible gambling messages to customers, and train staff on responsible gambling practices.
The ability to self-exclude is another vital part of Virginia’s responsible gambling efforts.
Self-exclusion in Virginia is a blanket prohibition that prohibits the individual from “participating in any form of legalized gaming in the Commonwealth.” Anyone breaking their self-exclusion is “prohibited from collecting any winnings or recovering any losses,” they may incur. Forfeited winnings are donated to the Commonwealth’s Problem Gambling Treatment and Support Fund.
Virginia offers self-exclusion terms of:
- Two years
- Five years
- Lifetime
The two-year and five-year self-exclusion forms can be submitted online. The lifetime exclusion must be done in person at Virginia Lottery headquarters or other approved locations approved by the Department.
Self-excluding from sportsbooks in Virginia can also extend beyond the state’s borders.
Per Virginia law, “the Department will share the self-exclusion list with operators of legal gambling in the Commonwealth and that such operators, pursuant to their own policies, may extend the exclusion of the individual to offerings at the operator’s locations outside the borders of the Commonwealth.”
A late change to the rules just before they were approved was the removal of language that would have voided active bets if an individual were to self-exclude. The current language reads:
“If a player has a pending wager and the player subsequently self-excludes, the wager may settle and the funds and account balance shall be returned to the player in accordance with the permit holder’s internal control standards.”