The legalisation of sports betting in New Jersey in June 2018 has led to a boom in the state’s gambling industry, with regulators reporting $96 million in revenue generated from sports betting between January to October 2019.
A recent industry study commissioned by the iDevelopment and Economic Association (iDEA), a trade group for online gaming firms, also revealed that the revenue generated by online casino games such as slots and blackjack has also boosted state gaming revenue.
In New Jersey, online gambling has been legal for six years but the iGaming market has been sluggish for a number of years which has surprised gaming analysts. Currently, online casinos operate fully in just three states: Delaware, Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Nevada restricts online gambling to poker and sports, while West Virginia is set to launch its own casino games online in 2020.
New Jersey’s online gaming revenue has been below estimates but that being said it has risen steadily since 2013. The largest jump occurred in 2014, which saw the state bringing in $123.1 million after collecting a relatively meager $8.4 million in 2013. This amount has grown with each passing year, with 2019’s revenue expected to make the largest jump since 2014, a record-setting $452 million. This will be a 51 percent increase as total revenues in 2018 amounted to $299.1 million.
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After the U.S. Supreme Court reversed the federal ban on sports betting in May 2018, 19 states have approved sports betting operations, although just 13 are currently operational. New Jersey’s online sports betting industry is generating the majority of revenue. Initially, there were concerns that iGaming would eat into the profits of the land based casino industry but it has worked out well for the Garden State as iGaming has helped boost land based casino revenues.
The founder of iDEA, Jeff Ifrah, is a lawyer specializing in online gaming. He said the surge of online sports betting is an excellent opportunity for land based casinos to gain new customers. For instance, slot machine players are usually female and older whereas bettors on sports such daily fantasy football and college basketball are usually male and younger. Both kinds of customers now bet at land based casino sportsbooks.
Gambling operators in New Jersey have found their shares rising with new developments in the state. Some of these operators include Flutter Entertainment Plc, which owns FanDuel who saw its shares rising 36 percent this year and Caesars Entertainment Corp whose stock price has nearly doubled in 2019.
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