New Jersey’s Meadowlands Racetrack plans to dip its toes into the sports betting waters by offering ‘free play sports contests’ this fall. Starting Sept. 2, Meadowlands patrons will be able to make predictions on the outcomes of National Football League and NCAA football games at the track’s Victory Sports Bar. The free-play games will be powered by CG Technology (formerly Cantor Gaming), the brains behind many a Nevada sportsbook.
Players will earn points with each correct ‘wager,’ with the player who earns the most points in any given week earning a $2k cash prize. The player with the most cumulative points at the end of the season’s football action will walk away with $10k. Meadowlands operator Jeff Gural told The Record’s John Brennan that the free-play offering would attract a new demographic to the track.
The Meadowlands’ entry into the free-play sports betting world follows a similar move last year by the Monmouth Park track. Monmouth owner Dennis Drazin said the free-play offering attracted an average of 1,500 players per week, proving to be a good enough marketing tool to justify keeping it on the menu this fall. In May 2013, Monmouth inked a deal with William Hill US to offer real-money sports betting action, which would have launched this fall had the state’s legal quest to overturn the federal prohibition on sports betting not fallen on deaf ears at the US Supreme Court last month.
There still might be legal sports betting available at New Jersey tracks (and Atlantic City casinos) depending on what Gov. Chris Christie does with the new sports betting bill passed by the state legislature last month. The anarchic bill would repeal the state’s anti-betting laws at casinos and tracks, legalizing sports betting without regulating it or issuing specific licenses.
Christie has until Aug. 10 to decide whether to sign, veto or take no action on the bill, with the latter option resulting in the bill going through as if he’d signed it. The bill passed with sufficient majorities in both legislative chambers to override a Christie veto, meaning the bill is likely to take effect regardless. However, the same parties that opposed the state’s last sports betting bill – the pro and college sports leagues and the US Department of Justice – can be reliably counted on to enact another legal roadblock, making free-play the only legal play for the foreseeable future.
