SECAUCUS, NJ — New Jersey regulators said that the state saw more than $100 million wagered on the recently completed NCAA men’s tournament.
It’s the first time that betting on March Madness took place at legal NJ sportsbooks. The tournament — aside from casual and widespread office and online pools — had only been legal to wager on in Nevada in the United States.
The state’s sports betting operators held about 10% of bets on $106 million in handle. That generated more than $10 million in revenue for sportsbooks, according to data released by the NJ Department of Gaming Enforcement on Thursday at the Betting On Sports America conference.
Handle would have straddled March and April, as the Final Four fell in the latter month. The state took about $370 million in wagers in March.
The DGE also reported that there was $182 million in college football wagering in 2018, and $52 million in handle in college hoops in 2018.
Wagering in the state started in the summer of 2018, so those numbers would not include any figures from 2017-2018 season. It would also not capture the final bowl games or the national championship, which took place in January 2019.
