NJ Sports Betting Reaches A Quarter Billion Dollars In October Handle


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NJ sports betting revenue

It’s always an exciting day when New Jersey regulators release the monthly sports betting report, but October was a rough month to be a bookmaker.

Sportsbooks took in more than $260 million in wagers for the month, up about 41 percent from September. Revenue, however, was cut in half to $11.7 million, with online/mobile betting making up the bulk of the total.

The state also realized about $1.4 million in related tax revenue to bring its running tally more than $4 million since launch.

October was the fifth month of legal, regulated NJ sports betting.

NJ sports betting revenue breakdown

The data covers traffic from nine retail sportsbooks and eight digital platforms. Here’s how the revenue breaks down across the market:

Property (Online)DigitalRetailOctober TotalSeptember Total
Bally’s Wild Wild West (Caesars, 888)$108,359$303,240$411,599$500,509
Borgata (playMGM)$66,924$120,288$187,212$2,515,044
Golden Nugget (SugarHouse through 10/8)$151,446$46,109$46,109$1,118,444
Harrah’sN/A$104,448$104,448$310,766
Meadowlands (FanDuel)$2,427,928$1,114,712$3,542,640$7,230,022
Monmouth Park (William Hill, SugarHouse from 10/9)$608,611$606,981$1,215,592$2,208,882
Ocean Resort (William Hill)$385,641$438,552$824,193$1,291,939
Resorts (DraftKings, BetStars)$5,090,253$97,313$5,187,566$8,785,432
TropicanaN/A$15,314$15,314N/A
Totals:$8,839,162$2,846,957$11,686,119$23,961,038

Most of the revenue decline likely traces back to NFL action, where public sides have come in at a heavier-than-average clip. October was also the month where MLB and World Series futures payouts hit the bottom line for operators.

The players in the game are mostly the same as the September report with just one notable exception. Tropicana opened its sportsbook at the tail end of the month.

For completed events — not including unresolved futures — NJ sportsbooks hold about 5.8 percent of settled wagers to date.

And the winner is …

No surprise here; DraftKings Sportsbook continues to set the pace for the market.

It now shares a network with FOX Bet under the license of Resorts AC, so it is no longer possible to distinguish their individual numbers. But the two sites combined for $5.1 million in October revenue, good for almost 60 percent of the online/mobile total for the state.

Senior Director of Digital Sportsbook Operations Jamie Shea offered this statement to LSR:

“Since launching DraftKings Sportsbook in August, we continue to exceed our internal projections. We’ve paid out more than $150 million to winning bettors in New Jersey, and even in an increasingly competitive market, our customer retention rate remains strong. We plan to build on this initial success in the coming months as we unveil exciting new features to our Sportsbook product.”

FanDuel Sportsbook earned the silver medal for its digital revenue of $2.4 million. That’s down slightly from about $2.85 million the previous month, and its statement to LSR worked to explain the numbers:

“October was a great month. Demand for the FanDuel Sportsbook continues to outpace our expectations with online handle 2.5 times higher than September and continued double digit growth in retail handle. It was an exciting month for bettors who won at a high rate on football and benefitted from our industry-leading pricing and odds boosts. We will continue to offer New Jersey customers the best pricing and promotions in the industry and are looking forward to further growth in NJ and beyond.”

The retail market is shaking out pretty much as expected.

The enviable plot on which Meadowlands sits is drawing heavy traffic from MetLife Stadium next door. The on-site FanDuel Sportsbook collected $1.1 million in revenue for the month, nearly twice as much as any other property.

Online/mobile continues its takeover

The growing percentage of online/mobile betting is perhaps the primary takeaway from this month’s report. Digital revenue surpassed brick-and-mortar revenue for the first time in September, a trend that is unlikely to reverse in any future report.

The disparity only grew in October, with almost $175 million of the handle coming via online/mobile platforms. That represents two-thirds of the total, and that gap will only widen as time goes on. The market still awaits the entry of several large online bookmakers like Kindred Group and bet365.

Those that can bridge digital and retail betting will, of course, find themselves in the catbird seat over the long term.

Meadowlands/FanDuel provides a fine model there, but William Hill, Caesars and MGM also offer multichannel sports betting. Keen on competing, DraftKings is preparing to enter the retail sportsbook market itself.