New Jersey’s regulated sports betting market handled total wagers of $95.6m in August, more than twice the volume handled in the previous month.
Figures released Wednesday by the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement (DGE) show the nine sports betting licensees – six casinos, two racetracks, one purely digital operation – that were taking wagers in August attracted $95.6m in total handle, a significant improvement from the $40.7m the state’s then-three (two, really) betting licensees handled in July.
The DGE reported sports betting revenue of just under $9.2m in August, although, as previously noted, the DGE’s definition of ‘revenue’ includes wagers that are still pending, such as futures, as well as “unredeemed winning wagers” that laggard bettors haven’t got around to collecting.
The DGE says revenue from “industry completed events” since regulated betting began in late June is just over $7.2m, representing a nearly 5% hold of the market’s total handle of $146.1m.
Of August’s betting handle, $21.7m (22.6%) was wagered online, and most of that was handled by daily fantasy sports operator cum sportsbook DraftKings, which launched its mobile betting app in early August and had most of the digital market to itself until MGM Resorts and PlaySugarHouse crashed the party late last month.
DraftKings has partnered with Resorts Digital Gaming, the interactive arm of Atlantic City’s Resorts Casino Hotel. Tellingly, Resorts Digital claimed a near-dominant share of August’s betting ‘revenue’ at $2.97m, behind only the Meadowlands racetrack, which claimed $3.06m. However, the $98k that Resorts earned from its land-based wagering would have allowed it to claim the overall top spot.
New Jersey’s other betting racetrack, Monmouth Park, claimed the next largest slice of land-based betting revenue at just under $900k, followed by the Borgata casino ($805k + $49k online) while Ocean Resort Casino was well back at just under $520k.
September’s figures will be the ones to watch, given the arrival of a new National Football League season and the addition of multiple new digital wagering options, including Monmouth Park, which launched online last Friday.
