West Virginia Sports Betting News - Read more on WV sports, sportsbooks and wins
West Virginia may not have an especially storied history in the realms of professional or college football, but the state is near and dear to sports bettors’ hearts as of spring 2018 with legalized sports betting overseen by the WV State Lottery Commission.
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A deal between BetMGM and Buffalo Wild Wings made in principle in September 2019 finally came to fruition last weekend, with the introduction of the “Blazin’ Bets” app which takes
TB’s Super Bowl win saves WV sportsbooks from disaster
WV land-based and mobile sportsbooks took a hit in February – but things might have been a lot worse were it not for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers winning Super Bowl
WV January sports betting, casino, iGaming revenue down – and up
The WV Lottery Commission has released revenue figures for the state’s wagering activity in January 2021, and the results are a bit of a mixed bag, with sports betting
Those in-the-know about gambling law in the US saw two cases working their way up the federal court system, both originating in New Jersey, both championed to some extent at least by then-outgoing governor and Donald Trump lackey Chris Christie. And those same folks were certainly figuring West Virginia fixing would become on the first half-dozen or so in the country to legalize sports betting.
Why? Precedent had long been set: good ol’ West Virginia was among the first states to legalize and codify pari-mutuel betting at the state’s racetracks back in the early 1930s. Thereafter, whether it was a state lottery, bingo parlors, video slots or simulcast race betting, West Virginia legislators and, when necessary, voters readily approved early each time.
And when the question of legalizing daily fantasy sports betting came up in 2013, WV lawmakers were again at the ready. While some states still had commissions deducing the skill level of DFS (as in New York and Pennsylvania) or predictably flat-out illegalized it (as in Utah, Georgia and Hawaii), West Virginia was – you guessed it – one of the first three to codify DFS-specific language into state law.
So it went in 2018 with the two POTUS decisions ruling in favor of states’ rights to make law regarding sports betting within state borders. New Jersey was, naturally, ready to roll; Delaware, which had already signed an interesting contract with the state of Nevada to provide intrastate online gaming, was no. 3 to legalize sports betting within a week. And coming in at number four: Good old West Virginia.
Legal laws plus lots of WV sportsbooks online and off- makes West Virginia a great overlooked state for plentiful sports betting.