March Madness worked wonders for New Jersey’s gaming industry as it helped it rebound from a disappointing Super Bowl February.
The always highly popular NCAA Basketball Championship boosted the State’s total betting handle for the month to $372.5 million.
This is according to the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement (DGE) which released its wagering numbers for March on Friday.
Also disclosed was that NJ’s total sportsbook handle since its first sports bet was placed last June has soared to $1.78 billion
March’s $372.5 million was slightly lower than January’s $385.3 million – NJ’s record month to date.
March handle up $52.4 million on February
It was up, however, on February’s disappointing $320.4 million when its sportsbooks had hoped for more from the Super Bowl.
The Super Bowl and the victory by the Patriots, in fact, was a loss-maker for New Jersey’s 13 sportsbooks and their licensed casino or race track partners. It is estimated that between them they lost more than $5 million on the Super Bowl to the punters.
March Madness, however, was a very different story. New Jersey’s sportsbooks came out on top to the extent that they finished with total revenue of $31.7
Well over 80% of all wagers were taken online as opposed to those placed at land-based betting windows.
NJ sportsbook market leader FanDuel brought in $17.6m of that $31.7m with next-best DraftKings some distance back at $7.3m. William Hill with $2.7 million was next closest to FanDuel.
For license purposes, FanDuel and New Jersey’s newest sportsbook, PointsBet, are partnered by Meadowlands Race Track. DraftKings and StarBets are associated with Resorts Casinos (Digital) and William Hill with Monmouth Race track.
March Madness brought “record-breaking numbers for FanDuel”
FanDuel publicity director Kevin Hennessey was “pretty happy” with the latest results
“FanDuel continues to be the top operator in the New Jersey sportsbook market, both in mobile and retail,” he said in a press release.
“There was incredible excitement for March Madness, noted by record-breaking revenue numbers for FanDuel. We had the biggest revenue month of any operator since the launch of legalized betting in New Jersey last June.”
Altogether, the DGE reported $293,967,694 in total gaming revenue for New Jersey last month. It was 34.5-percent up on March 2018.
The state ended the first quarter with $764,783,813 in total gaming revenue. This was from land-based and online sportsbooks, from its Casino table games, slot machines, and poker games and from racecourse betting). It was 28.6% up on the same period in 2018.
