New Jersey Sports Betting Market Grows in Multiple Ways

NJ Sports Betting Report by the Numbers: November 2018

Breaking Down New Jersey's November Reports

New Jersey’s bountiful gambling market continued to grow in November as the state Division of Gaming Enforcement reported $21,243,865 in sports wagering revenue, raising its total to $73,208,170 million in gross revenue since its legal inception on June 14, according to the report.

And the wealth is beginning to spread between competitors.

Total sports betting handle was $330,748,563, which was up 27 percent from $260,711,301 in October. Online handle increased to $238,615,611 million from $174.4 million. Handle since June 14 – when legal sports betting began in the state - ballooned to $928,116,793, with $539,565,435 coming online.

The November report follows an October release in which New Jersey logged $11.7 million in sports wagering revenue, which was down from a record $23.96 million in September, spurred by the first full month of college and the National Football League seasons.

• Esports Betting Sites

Football betting has accounted for $328,246,428 of the year-to-date completed events handle, dwarfing all other sports.

DraftKings, through its partnership with Resorts Digital, again led New Jersey sportsbooks with $7,330,503 in reported revenue in November, but rival FanDuel, through its association with Meadowlands had a strong showing at $7,043,394. Sports wagers placed in shops are taxed at 8.5 percent in New Jersey and 13 percent online.

DraftKings was the first to begin offering online wagering on Aug. 1. It had six competitors for the November reading.

“DraftKings continues to set the pace in New Jersey sports betting,” Jamie Shea, Senior Director of Digital Sportsbook said in a statement to Gambling.com. “Since August, DraftKings has taken more than eight million bets and paid out $250 million to sports fans. Our new retail sportsbook at Resorts had a strong first month, capped with an exciting consumer event this past weekend. No one understands the American sports fan like DraftKings.”

DraftKings opened its first betting parlor at Resorts Casino Hotel in Atlantic City in November and logged $158,332 in revenue in just 11 days, which was more than Resorts did in September and October.

While DraftKings’ revenue increased substantially from $5,090,253 in October, FanDuel’s mushroomed from $3,542,640 in the last report.

“November was a history making month for the FanDuel Sportsbook,” company spokesperson Kevin Hennessy told Gambling.com. “We doubled revenue versus October and we were the first legal sports betting operator in the United States to pay out future wagers early on Alabama winning the college football national championship.

“With more innovative promotions and payouts than any other sportsbook, we’re thrilled to see more and more consumers choosing to place their wagers with the FanDuel Sportsbook.”

In October, total sports betting handle was $260,711,301 which was well up from $183,948,404 September, however. A slump in revenue traced to the year-to-date New Jersey hold dropping from 7.9 percent in September to 5.9 percent in October. Hold was roughly 6.4 percent in November.

Australian Company A New Suitor for New Jersey Dollars

According to the Associated Press, the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement has granted Australian sports book PointsBet preliminary permission to conduct so-called “soft play” betting in affiliation with the Meadowlands Racetrack

SportsBets, which has stated its intentions to make the United States its primary market, will operate online only, as FanDuel – through its PaddyPower Betfair License - manages the boutique and online operation currently.

“Our focus from day one has always been on the US, with Australia very much a proof of concept for us to get our Points Betting and sportsbook capabilities tuned up to execute at an optimal level when the market here finally opened,” Points Bet CEO Johnny Aitken told iGamingBusiness.com in July when the deals were first announced.

PointsBet is unique for its high-risk/high-reward betting options, particularly wagers that allow bettors to win or lose amounts greater than they bet depending on how close they come to the final spread or over/under. The practice has drawn scrutiny from responsible-gambling advocates, but the company contends it has built in safeguards.

“Points Betting is like spread betting in the UK, but the scoring mechanics are far more suited to US and Australian sports than it is in the UK with soccer,” Aitken told iGamingBusiness.com. “If you have a normal fixed-odds bet, you could very well know at half time whether you will win or lose, whereas if you have a points bet, you are watching the match until the very last second as each play and score can impact your bet.”

PointsBet solicited and used ideas for NBA Finals prop bets from Twitter last season.

“The NBA and NFL represent just under 30 percent of our handle with our trading team experts in all US sports,” Aitken told iGamingBusiness.com. “We have also invested heavily in building a high-performance quantitative analytics department, which powers us to offer hundreds of betting options and player propositions not available anywhere else in the world for the NFL, NBA, MLB and NHL.”

New Jersey’s sports betting market added another player this week when the Stars Group, which operates in the state under the auspices of BetStars, announced a data-sharing deal for betting purposes with the National Basketball Association. BetStars operates under the license of Resorts Casino Hotel in Atlantic City.

PointsBet also announced in July intentions to ally in a similar deal with Tioga Downs in New York, but legislation has yet to be finalized that would allow the practice.