With sports betting now legal in New Jersey, gaming operators must now work quickly if they want to be able to offer such wagering options by the start of the upcoming football season.
Casinos in Atlantic City, New Jersey, will have to act fast if they want to offer sports betting services in time for the new football season. On Sunday, the director of the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement, David Rebuck, told the Associated Press that casinos were told they have until the end of July 16 to get their applications submitted.
The timetable for the casinos to have their applications turned in was first made known on July 9. Plans for onsite sports betting must be submitted along with any plans for online or mobile sports betting options.
Not much time remaining
Casinos that miss today’s deadline will be at risk of not having their operations tested and approved in time to offer wagering by September. Commenting on the timetable, Rebuck said: “They’ve got to give us a reasonable amount of time to evaluate and test all this.”
According to Rebuck, operators have known that the Division of Gaming Enforcement would be testing and approving individual applications since January. This was a different approach to the way the DGE completed applications for online gaming in 2013, when applications were reviewed at once. The director said that some casinos have yet to submit their platforms for sports betting testing while others have progressed further with the process.
So far, four companies in the region are offering sports wagering: The Borgata Casino and the Ocean Resort Casino of Atlantic City, along with the Meadowlands Racetrack and Monmouth Park.
The NFL season will kick off on Thursday, September 6, with a game between the Philadelphia Eagles and the Atlanta Falcons. Sunday games will then begin on September 9. The above venues will be ready to offer full sports betting options on football games as the season gets started.
Sports betting revenues thus far
In New Jersey, sports betting has been in operation since June 14. For June, more than $16.4m (£12.4m) in bets was placed during a 17-day time frame. Monmouth Park was the first to begin offering sports betting in the state, along with the Borgata, both starting on June 14. The Ocean Resort Casino began operations on June 28th. Monmouth Park operates a Sportsbook by William Hill that generated a total handle of $8.6m (£6.5m) in the 17-day time frame.
Monmouth Park is operated by Darby Development LLC, whose CEO and President Dennis Drazin, said of the month: “We are extremely pleased with our numbers. We think they show there is a huge appetite for sports betting. To be generating these numbers early, and it’s not even football season yet, speaks enormously of the potential for when football season comes around. So we’re thrilled by the early numbers.”
A fourth operator began offering sports betting services in New Jersey over the weekend, when the Meadowlands Racetrack opened its FanDuel Sportsbook at the Victory Sports Bar & Club. The Meadowlands Sportsbook is located adjacent to the MetLife Stadium, which the New York Giants and Jets teams call home.