New Jersey’s Division of Gaming Enforcement has given Canadian sports media giant theScore the green light. It can now go ahead with the full-blown launch of its first sportsbook ahead of the football season.
That they now set it to become the Garden State’s 16th online sports betting operator was announced Monday. The DGE’s thumbs-up, a press release said, followed “the successful completion of a regulatory ‘soft-launch’ period last week”.
theScore is partnered by Monmouth Park Racetrack and has Bet. Works as its betting platform software provider. Its deal with the New Jersey racecourse will be for a term of up to 15 years. It will comprise an initial five with the option of extending it for two successive five-year terms.
The Toronto-based company added that it “remains on schedule for its expected state-wide launch” but It did not give any exact details. However, with the football season only weeks away, it should be any day now.
theScore founder and CEO, John Levy, wants it to be ready for the start of the NFL season on September 5. And this is not only in New Jersey, it seems.
Penn deal has given theScore access to numerous states
A few weeks back, a partnership deal with Penn National Gaming was signed that will give theScore access to betting markets in a number of other states.
They include Iowa, where casino and statewide sports betting has been available since August 15. Another is in Indiana, which is scheduled to do the same thing on September 1. theScore also has a casino ‘skin’ in Mississippi, but without mobile sports betting as yet, that state’s not a priority.
Other states covered by theScore’s deal with Penn National includes Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, Ohio and Texas.
At this time, none of these last-mentioned States allows legal sports betting, but that could change.
Belief is spreading across America that legal betting at home is preferable to illegal betting offshore. Since the arrival of the internet, the prevalence of offshore betting has been sending millions of dollars out of the country.
Illegal offshore betting is costing the USA millions
It could instead earn millions in betting tax for things like education, health and welfare.
In the meantime, breaking into the crowded and competitive New Jersey betting market won’t be easy. Not with sports fantasy giants like FanDuel and DraftKings and international titans Bet365 and William Hill already in the market.
The Canadian company does, however, have one very large advantage. They report it to have 3.7 million monthly online users of its news and data app. One of this service’s main functions has been to help sports fans make better-informed bets.
Its new sports betting app will conveniently be linked with its media service. theScore has seen what sports fantasy did for New Jersey market leaders, FanDuel and DraftKings. It clearly must hope, then, that its media followers will serve as the same kind of springboard into US betting markets.
“We have tremendous confidence in what we’re about to unleash in New Jersey,” Levy said after they announced the Penn National deal.
He still feels the same way – and perhaps even more so after his company’s deal with Penn. With sportsbooks in other states ready to go and more likely to fit theScore’s sportsbook model, who knows?