Virginia Lottery officials stated Wednesday that more sports wagering operators are expected to come online quickly, which would join the five approved operators that went live almost 2 weeks after the marketplace became legal in the state.

Legislation to permit online sports betting in Virginia passed the General Assembly last spring and the first operator, FanDuel, was authorized and came online on January 20. During its online virtual conference Wednesday, the Virginia Lottery Board heard updates on the process from lotto Executive Director Kevin Hall and Deputy Director for Gaming Compliance Gina Smith, as reported by the Bristol Herald Courier.

"The legislation that licensed legal sports betting in Virginia took result last July 1. Within 2 months, we came to the board for your evaluation and approval of detailed composed guidelines," Hall stated. "2 months after that, we started accepting applications for mobile sports betting licenses and today - seven months after sports betting ended up being legal in Virginia - we have actually several qualified and licensed sportsbooks that are contending in Virginia under accountable regulative structure that has some strong customer securities. We are less than 2 weeks into this brave new world."

The state received an "frustrating" 25 applications for 12 readily available permits - which doesn't include particular sports teams - throughout a two-week duration in October, Smith stated. Between Jan. 20-27, the state provided licenses for 2 authorized casino operators - Portsmouth Gaming Holdings LLC, which is slated to operate the Rivers Casino Portsmouth, and Caesars Virginia LLC, which is scheduled to operate a gambling establishment in Danville.

The state also provided 3 for FanDuel, in conjunction with the NFL Washington Football Team; Crown Virginia Gaming, LLC, also called DraftKings; and BetMGM LLC. FanDuel started taking bets Jan. 20; DraftKings began Jan. 24; BetMGM and Rivers Casino Portsmouth each began taking bets Jan. 27; and Caesars Virginia went cope with William Hill US on Wednesday, Smith said.

The sports betting law allows all approved Virginia gambling establishment operators to have a license. Hard Rock International, which is to operate the Bristol gambling establishment, has actually sent its sportsbook application.

"In addition to approving operators, we have actually dealt with other operators to prepare them to go live," Smith said. "The go-live process consists of more than background investigations. It consists of an evaluation of internal controls, sports wagering title laws, terms and conditions, bonds and insurance coverage and systems certification. We're presently working on this with several additional operators and we should be in a position to go live within the next couple of weeks."

The first monetary reports for sports betting are due Feb. 20. Smith predicted it will take some time for the market to "settle" because initial marketing efforts are "much bigger" and those expenditures can be deducted to profits, so it will likely take a number of months to learn what sort of tax profits to expect.