West Virginia Mobile Sports Betting

West Virginia online sportsbooks attract new sports bettors and keep existing ones by providing bonus offers and promo codes. It is a great way of maximizing your sports betting bankroll and maximizing your investment when trying out a new sportsbook.

West Virginia officially has sports betting, including online wagering, in 2020. 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. West Virginia legalized sports betting in March 2018, but the law did not become active until the Supreme Court of the United States overturned PASPA on May 14, 2018. DraftKings Sportsbook launched its mobile app in West Virginia on Aug 28, 2019. The company has a licensing agreement to operate in the state with Penn National Gaming.

1. 🤔 Is mobile sports betting legal in West Virginia? All the online sportsbooks have apps you can download. However, you can also use FanDuel, DraftKings and BetMGM on your mobile browser as well. In the mobile apps world, iOS users can download the apps from the App Store.
2. DraftKings WV launched its mobile sports betting app in August 2019 through a partnership with Penn National Gaming and Hollywood Casino in Charles Town. Any resident within the borders of West Virginia can open the app and place a bet. You can do live, pre-match, in-game, and futures bets for most major league sports.
3. Since the launch of sports betting in West Virginia, Hollywood Casino reigned supreme. When the WV casino launched its popular mobile betting app, DraftKings Sportsbook, it seemed it would hold onto the top spot for the foreseeable future. Well, the future is here and Hollywood fell down a rung.

There are currently two online sports betting apps in West Virginia:

Overview

How sportsbook bonuses work

Most sign-up offers come in the form of matched deposit bonuses and free bets. The distinction between the two is blurry because the size of many free bets depends on the size of your initial payment.

Generally, a free bet allows you to place a risk-free wager and claim the winnings if it’s unsuccessful, while a matched bonus grants you a percentage of your deposit in promotional cash.

For example, if you claim a $20 free bet and place a bet at 1.50 odds (winning $30), in most cases, you will be awarded $10 (your winnings minus the initial stake). On the other hand, if you deposit $50 and claim a 50% deposit bonus, you will receive $25 that you can use on any number of bets.

Welcome promotions come with a limit on the amount you can claim. For example, if you deposit $250 and use the 50% bonus with a $100 cap, you will receive $100 in bonus money instead of $125.

Both free bets and matched bonuses tend to come with an expiry date, which means that you must meet the rollover requirements within a certain amount of time, typically between 10 and 30 days.

Rollover requirements

Rollover requirements determine how much money you need to bet before you’re allowed to withdraw your promotional winnings. They protect operators from bonus abuse, ensuring that the customers stick with the sportsbook instead of milking it for free cash.

For example, a $20 bonus with a standard 5x rollover requires you to bet at least $100 before requesting a cashout. In most cases, only the bonus itself is taken into account, but some sportsbooks apply this requirement to both the initial deposit and promotional cash.

This practice is frowned upon among bettors, and once you do the math, it’s easy to see why. A similar $20 bonus with a 50% match and 5x rollover would require you to wager 5x bonus $20 + 5x deposit $40 = $300.

While this rule isn’t set in stone, free bets tend to come with lower rollover requirements than standard deposit bonuses.

Read the fine print

The differences in rollover mentioned above aren’t the only reason you should always read the terms and conditions before claiming your bonus.

Some bonuses also carry odds-related requirements that force you to place the promotional bets on unfavorable markets. In rare cases, you might even be required to place an extremely risky bet using your own money to unlock your free bet, rendering the promotion useless for value-oriented bettors.

Remember that odds-related requirements shouldn’t always be considered a deal-breaker. If your operator requires you to take some risks but you have a reasonable chance to clear the promotional funds – go for it.

Finding a perfect promotion is nearly impossible. If the rollover is low, expect additional requirements – and vice-versa; if there are no odds-related requirements, the rollover is likely to be higher than average.

Bonus illustration

The William Hill US sign-up offer available to bettors in Nevada is an excellent example of a standard matched deposit bonus with no excessive requirements. To participate in this promotion, you need to create a new William Hill US account and deposit at least $50 to the site.

The bonus amount is always equivalent to 10% of the initial payment and comes with a $50 cap. This means that if you deposit $50, you’ll receive $5, $100 will net you $10, and so on. However, if you deposit $501 or more, you’ll only receive $50 in promotional cash.

The terms and conditions of the bonus state that it is transferred to your account as soon as you play through the initial deposit at least once. This requirement must be met within 90 days – otherwise, the entire bonus expires.

Despite the low match, this bonus is guaranteed to be useful to casual bettors because it is compatible with all kinds of betting strategies – William Hill doesn’t force you to select any specific markets or bet types.

The 1x rollover gives you some extra bang for your buck even if you get extremely unlucky and lose your entire deposit without winning any bets.

West Virginia Mobile Sports Betting

Getting the most value out of a bonus

If you’re looking for maximum value, start by checking the odds-related requirements and rollover requirements of the bonuses available to you.

Focus on the offers that allow you to place safe bets and minimize the risk factor – remember that your goal should be to clear the promotional funds for withdrawal; not to turn a long-term profit.

Playing it safe also means that you should forget about parlays – instead, play it straight for a while.

Generally, a 10% bonus with a 1x wagering requirement is better than a 30% bonus with a 5x rollover. The grind your deposit is likely to go through outweighs the benefits of receiving an extra 20% in promotional cash – unless you’re among the experienced bettors who win more than 50% of their wagers.

The rule of thumb for inexperienced bettors is to always go for the easy money.

West Virginia market snapshot

There are no licensed online sportsbooks available in West Virginia as of now. However, the operators eyeing this market are unlikely to assume a different approach than in the other iGaming-friendly states, such as Nevada or New Jersey.

This means that the value of the bonuses that will be initially available to West Virginia residents is likely to be similar to the value of the William Hill US sign-up offer discussed above.

However, as more and more companies enter the market, West Virginia sportsbooks are almost guaranteed to step up their bonus game. This mechanism could be observed on all fenced iGaming markets, and one of the most recent examples is the rivalry between poker and casino sites in New Jersey.

Unfortunately, this process usually takes some time, so don’t expect anything outstanding in the first year or two.

Happy Monday, everyone. Even during a presidential inauguration, sports betting managed to make significant news headlines last week.

The latest LSR Podcastbreaks down the two big stories of last week: mobile launches in Michigan and Virginia.

While both states officially launched online last week, not all operators are live. Follow @LSPReport on Twitter for updates as more sportsbooks launch.

Sports Betting Virginia

Top sports betting news: Michigan, Virginia launch mobile

Legal mobile sports betting is now available in 15 US jurisdictions after both Michigan and Virginia launched last week.

Michigan’s launch completed its rollout of sports betting that began last March. Going mobile expanded MI sports betting from three retail sportsbooks in Detroit to 10 mobile apps with five more on the way.

The market includes all the expected heavy hitters but outgoing Entain CEO Shay Segev contends BetMGM could be the market leader. That’s assuming the BetMGM partners, Entain and MGM Resorts, continue to play nicely after MGM’s stalled takeover attempt of Entain.

Virginia, meanwhile, caught everyone off-guard when FanDuel Sportsbookannounced Wednesday it would go live Thursday. FanDuel got a jump on the market because of the preferred status of its partner via state law, the Washington Football Team.

The secrecy around the Virginia Lottery‘s rollout will only continue from here. Remember, we still have no idea who all 25 applicants even are. We do at least know more operators are expected to launch in time to take Super Bowl bets, a lottery spokesperson said.

VA already expanding?

Some legislators want an even bigger VA sports betting market than last year’s legislation allows.

That’s because the changes in this year’s legislation were supposed to be in last year’s bill, Del. Mark Sickles said.

Sickles wants the essentially guaranteed five sports betting licenses for the state’s eventual casino operators to be excluded from the cap of 12 mobile-only licenses.

NY mobile betting bills on the move

Both the New York Senate and Assembly versions of a mobile sports betting bill were voted out of committee last week. It’s a small first step on a potentially arduous journey.

The proposal would allow two skins per casino operator in the state for a total of 14 licenses.

When Will West Va Have Sports Betting

It’s not the only mobile NY sports betting proposal, though. Gov. Andrew Cuomo is pushing for a state-run style that would include one or more operators sharing a significant portion of sports betting revenue with the state.

Wire Act only for sports betting, court rules

The Wire Act finally got the ruling the online gaming industry hoped to see.

Hollywood Casino Sports Betting West Virginia

The First Circuit Court of Appeals ruled the Wire Act only pertains to sports betting. The Trump administration’s Department of Justice opinion said the Wire Act was for all online gambling, which contradicted an opinion from 2011.

West Virginia Mobile Sports Betting Sites

The ruling should be the end of this issue for now. The 2011 opinion was written while President Joe Biden was Vice President, so his administration is not expected to appeal.

Meanwhile, former PresidentTrump made some sports betting waves on his way out of office. He pardoned Casey Urlacherfor his part in an illegal gambling ring in Illinois. Sports bettor Billy Walters, meanwhile, had his sentence for insider trading commuted.

Another record month for PA

West Virginia Mobile Sports Betting Odds

The return of the NBA and the end of the NFL regular season led to another month of record handle in Pennsylvania.

Pennsylvania bettors wagered $548.6 million last month, which brought in $12.3 million in tax revenue for the state.

More than 97% of December’s PA sports betting handle came online. Pennsylvania is typically above 90% mobile share but got an extra boost with casinos closed for most of December because of the coronavirus.