Will Legal Sports Betting Pay Out in West Virginia?

Sports betting has officially become legal in the US in May 2018 after the US Supreme Court overturned the federal ban from 1992…

…and now West Virginia has become the fifth US state that fully legalized sports betting!

Many were surprised because this state has no eminent teams in any major sports league in the US. So, why bother going through all that hustle of introducing new bills and waiting for them to become a law?

Well, experts claim that the state doesn’t have to be successful in sports in order to enjoy all the benefits that the legal sports betting can bring. It can be quite fruitful, depending on how you look at it.

The Prediction(s)

Just like it happened in New Jersey and Nevada, West Virginia will probably also go through a lucrative period of the inauguration of sports betting on their grounds. For example, in New Jersey, sports wagering is already bringing huge amounts of money (around $238 million) …

…and it’s not even been a year since New Jersey legalized this type of gambling.

Of course, no one expects from West Virginia’s sportsbook operators to achieve such high numbers when it comes to the revenue, but economic experts believe that the public purse will be richer for a significant amount of money. For example, New Jersey gained around $2.45 million from sports betting taxes…

…and they are just getting started!

Interest in Sports

But, besides from bringing serious cash, legal sports betting can really boost interest in sports in the state of West Virginia. It will come as no surprise if some of the state’s sports teams become part of major US sporting leagues in the near future.

Not only that, some predictions say that even sports clubs across the state can see a major improvement in their finances through sponsorships. So, there will also be massive opportunities for clubs and sports outside of the four major leagues to emerge from the crowd.

The best example for that are millions of dollars that teams from Europe amass through shirt sponsorships, which is already becoming a thing in the US through NBA betting partnerships…

…and NFL being very open to that idea in the near future.

Betting in West Virginia

It should be taken into consideration that obviously when the big leagues get involved, the bookmakers will show interest in the lower leagues, just like they did in England and Italy for example.

Since now all adults in West Virginia can bet on football, college football, baseball, basketball, and so on, it is left to see how it will be adopted in the next year or so.

There is no doubt that the interest in betting will be huge in this state…

…and that sports wagering will become a massive hit, especially after launching online gambling bid. As this type of gambling becomes more and more accepted, betting partnerships will arise successively. And with all that, West Virginia’s teams can become more popular than ever before.

Source:

“How will sports betting fare in West Virginia”, Niji Ng, europeangaming.eu, January 16, 2019.