The New Jersey sports betting industry is not quite there just yet, but it’s pursuit of Nevada, is relentless. It shouldn’t be too long now before it overhauls the traditional sports-betting Mecca of the United States.
December proved to be another big month for the Garden State. Betting handle raked in by its one and a half dozen sportsbooks totaled $557.8 million.
That fell just short of its state record of $562.2m taken in November. However, it was up 74.7% year-on-year on the NJ’s $319.2 million taken in December 2018.
The gross Revenue for NJ sports betting followed the same pattern. Its $29.4 million was down from November’s $32.9 million, but way up (by 41.4%) from the $20.8 million won in December 2018.
December’s intake of sports bets sent its total intake for the year soaring to $4.6 billion.
$3.8 of $ 4.6 billion captured online
Of this amount, $3.8 billion (83.7%) was collected via smartphones and lap-tops. In other words, only 16.3% was placed in person at Casino and race track betting windows.
Revenue-wise, $244m of its $299m came from bets placed online and the state’s tax revenue for 2019 amounted to 36.5 million
As impressive as that 2019 total of $4.6 billion is, it will still leave New Jersey short of Nevada for the year 2019.
Nevada’s December figures won’t be available for another week or so, but we do know that by November 2019, it had already generated sports betting handle of $4.7 billion.
Eric Ramsey, an analyst for PlayNJ.com believes however that Nevada’s reign as the betting capital of the US is limited
2019 could be last year Nevada stays tops
“2019 could well go down as the last year that New Jersey is eclipsed by Nevada,” he said this week
“New Jersey’s positives as a sports betting market will continue to fuel its growth,” he added.
The New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement only supply Casino and Race track figures in its monthly reports. Those of the individual sportsbooks licensed to these retail betting operators are never released separately.
We do know, however, that sports fantasy giants FanDuel and DraftKings have firmly established themselves as New Jersey’s dominant sportsbooks. And the trend continued in December.
FanDuel along with PointsBet partnered by the Meadowlands Race Track easily headed their NJ rivals in gross year-to-dare revenue for December.
FanDuel are still NJ’s betting revenue leaders
At $149.9 million, they were well ahead of next-best Resorts Casino with DraftKings and Fox Bet at $79.6m.
But they were out of sight of Monmouth Park and its associates William Hill/Sugarhouse/theScore ($25.9m), NJ’s third best sportsbook operators.
Here is the list of New Jersey casino and race track retail sports betting operators with their year to date revenue earnings in December 2019
- Meadowlands/FanDuel/PointsBet – $149,9m
- Resorts Digital (casino)/ DraftKings/FOX Bet – $79.6 m
- Monmouth Park/William Hill/Sugarhouse/TheScore – $25.9m
- Ocean Casino/William Hill – $17.4m
- Borgata/Bet MGM – $10.5m
- Hard Rock/Bet365/Unibet – $3.5m
- Golden Nugget/BetAmerica – $2.4m
- Tropicana/William Hill – $1.9m
Football was top in sport betting handle
With regard to sports draw-cards, football with $939, 4 million, captured the most betting handle in the year ending December 2019.
Basketball was a close second at $9349, but baseball at $698,4m was a distant third
- Football $939,4m
- Basketball $$934,9m
- Baseball $698,4m
- Parlay bets $ 879,5m
- Other $1,1 billion
- Total $4,6 billion