New Jersey’s Meadowlands racetrack handled nearly $3.5m in wagers from its new legal sportsbook’s first nine days of operation.
The Meadowlands’ FanDuel-branded sportsbook opened on Saturday, July 14 and the Associated Press quoted track operator Jeff Gural saying the book had handled nearly $3.5m in sports wagers in the book’s first week-plus.
Gural’s verdict on the sportsbook’s activity was merely “okay,” saying the track had met its first weekend handle target of $1m but “the next four days were quiet with nothing to bet on due to the [Major League Baseball] All-Star break.” The track did another $650k worth of business last Saturday once baseball resumed its normal schedule.
Gural claimed to be satisfied with the book’s performance to date, given that there were only “10 live tellers windows open.” Plans are afoot to expand the track’s betting capacity before the real betting begins with football’s return.
To put the Meadowlands’ performance in perspective, New Jersey’s other licensed betting operators – the Monmouth Park racetrack and Atlantic City’s Borgata and Ocean Resort Casino properties – handled a combined $16.4m in wagers over their first two weeks of operation.
New Jersey’s Division of Gaming Enforcement (DGE) received a flurry of last-minute sports betting applications from the state’s gaming licensees last week, after publicly warning them that delays in submitting their software for testing could result in them missing the launch window for the upcoming National Football League season.
Under New Jersey’s sports betting regulations, online sports betting was deemed eligible to commence on July 11. To date, no New Jersey sports betting operators has launched online, presumably due to delays in the DGE vetting the technology of the various suppliers who had no history operating in the state.
Expectations are high that sports betting turnover and revenue will enjoy a healthy spike once state residents can enjoy the same mobile wagering options available to Nevada’s sports bettors. In-play wagering in particular will benefit from the ability to wager without requiring a physical presence at a licensed New Jersey book.
