30-second summary
- New Jersey’s sportsbooks hit a record monthly high of $385m in January
- Revenue was slightly down month on month at $18.8m
- The state is catching up to Nevada as the king of sports betting in the US
Record-breaking month
New Jersey sports betting is going from strength to strength. For a number of years, the state wanted to offer legal sports betting. It started the legal fight that resulted in the Supreme Court ruling ending the federal ban on sports betting in May 2018. It didn’t take long after that for the first sportsbooks to open up in New Jersey.
Figures have now been released for the first month of 2019 figures, showing a new monthly record of almost $400m (£309.5m) in sports bets, despite the fact that there were far fewer football games to bet on during the month. Football is usually the biggest source of revenue for sportsbooks in the United States.
Sports bets of more than $385m (£298m) were placed in January, a new monthly record. The growing trend in the state is for mobile sports betting to be by far the most popular method of betting.
Online sports bets made up 80% of the total money wagered. Many people regularly come from nearby states to place their mobile sports bets.
The sports betting revenue for December was $319m (£247m). However, the revenues for the sportsbooks did fall slightly month on month, from $21m (£16m) to $18.8m (£14.6m) in December.
Best performers
Meadowlands led the way with the physical sportsbook revenues in January with sports betting revenues of $1.17m (£0.91m) in January at its physical sportsbook. This was followed by Monmouth Park and the Borgata. In digital revenue, Resorts was on top with almost $6.9m (£5.3m), followed by Meadowlands with $5.85m (£4.53m) and then the Ocean Resort Casino with $1.17m (£0.91m).
Total digital sports betting revenues for January 2019 reached $15.5m (£12.0m), and the physical sportsbooks saw revenues of almost $3.3m (£2.6m).
The usual trend in Nevada over the years is for the final three months of the year to be the best performing months in the sports betting calendar. However, New Jersey is hitting new sports betting intake highs each month. This is largely because it is still a growing sector in the state.
Competing with Nevada
New Jersey is catching up to Nevada as the US leader in sports betting. In January 2015, sports betting in Nevada totaled $387m (£300m). That climbed to $419m (£324m) in January 2018. That shows that New Jersey is not so very far from rivaling Nevada in the sports betting sector.
The Super Bowl will have given another strong boost in betting intake in New Jersey, which could lead to another record-breaking month in February.
Usually, the Super Bowl accounts for about 30%-40% of Nevada’s sports betting handle in February. Figures in New Jersey show that about $35m (£27m) was bet on the Super Bowl.
The sportsbooks operated by FanDuel and DraftKings are still leading the way as the best performing operators. They have successfully managed the transition from dominating the daily fantasy sports market in the region to being the main players in US sports betting.
Some are wondering whether the decision of New York to allow sports betting at the four commercial casinos will have a future effect on the intake in New Jersey. Sports betting bills are under consideration in New York. Currently, a large number of New Yorkers regularly place bets with New Jersey sportsbooks.