New Jersey’s online gambling market posted its first ever monthly revenue total over $100m in January, while basketball and the NFL playoffs pushed sports betting revenue to yet another record.
Figures released Wednesday by the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement (DGE) show the state’s licensed online casino and poker operators generated combined revenue of just under $103.8m in January, an 88.4% rise from the same month last year and nearly $4m better than the state’s previous iGaming record set in December 2020.
January’s records were (as always) primarily due to the online casino vertical, which shot up 89.7% year-on-year to $101m all on their own. Online poker contributed $2.75m, up by nearly one-half from January 2020. Both verticals undoubtedly benefited from cross-selling to sports bettors who enjoyed a full slate of marquee matchups last month.
Golden Nugget Online Gaming led January’s iGaming revenue pack with $31.2m (+47%) but the Borgata casino’s family of sites – which includes the BetMGM brand – wasn’t far back with $28.7m, which represented a stellar 176.8% year-on-year improvement. Around $926k of the Borg’s January total came via poker.
Resorts Digital Gaming – under whose banner one can find DraftKings and Flutter Ent’s FoxBet/PokerStars brands – ranked third with revenue of $22.8m, of which $843k came via poker. Caesars Interactive Entertainment was a distant fourth with $7.4m (+74.3%), although it won the poker month (as usual) with $975k.
The Tropicana’s online casino placed fifth with just over $7m (+61.5%), while Hard Rock Atlantic City posted the month’s second-biggest percentage gain, rising 128.8% to $5.6m. Ocean Casino Resort brought up the rear with a mere $971k (+82.7%).
A PROGNOSTICATIVE PARADISE
January’s sports betting revenue shot up 54.3% from January 2020 to a record $82.6m, as wagering handle jumped 77.5% to $958.7m. However, the handle total represented a slight decline from December 2020’s record $996.3m record, so the record surge means bettors bet badly last month. All but $72m (7.5%) of January 2021’s handle came via digital channels.
Parlay wagers accounted for more than half ($43.6m) of January’s revenue on a 19.8% hold for the books. Basketball claimed the handle crown with $320.3m while roundball revenue ranked second with $15.35m. Football generated handle of nearly $201.8m and revenue of just under $12.6m.
The FanDuel/Meadowlands racetrack tandem topped January’s betting revenue chart with an impressive $46.8m, more than $20m better than the same month last year and a significant rise over December’s $33.2m. Distant runner-ups Resorts/DraftKings/FoxBet earned $15.7m, around $150k below their January 2020 total.
An even more distant third-place went to Borgata/BetMGM with less than $8.5m, although that was more than double its January 2020 total. Ocean Casino Resort also doubled up to $4.5m while the formerly reliable William Hill/Monmouth Park track tandem reported effectively flat revenue of around $3.7m.
