UK sports betting giant Bet365 yesterday (Thursday) soft-launched its first US sportsbook in the state of New Jersey.
It will be the Garden States’ 15th since DraftKings opened the first following a Supreme Court ruling in May last year. This was after the court struck down a federal law that had forbid sports betting since the early 1990s.
Would-be punters of New Jersey were invited Thursday to register betting accounts with Bet365. This would enable them to take part in a pre-live test run.
The invitation came together with an announcement on Twitter. It read: ‘The new bet365 site is going through a pre-live phase and is only available during certain time periods. It is now available to register for an account within the US. However, to engage in wagering you must be physically located in the state of New Jersey.
Bet365’s first indication that it was coming to America was when it partnered with Atlantic City’s Hard Rock Casino last summer. The ruling in NJ is that all sportsbooks can only operate if partnered with licensed Casinos or race tracks.
These intentions were further confirmed when it next signed a lease on a property in Marlton, NJ, and announced it was opening offices there. That was in March.
No sportsbook worth its salt would enter the highly-competitive New Jersey sportsbook industry without online betting options. Since inception, more than 80% of New Jersey’s total handle of over $3 billion has come in on the internet.
There’s uncertainty about when mobile apps will be available
Bet365, which is privately-owned and has 45 million users worldwide, has made it clear it will offer online betting. It was not clear Thursday, though, when it would make its mobile apps available.
Bet365’s New Jersey launch is expected to be followed soon by a second one in New York. Here it has partnered with the Empire Resorts World Catskills Casino.
New York State does not as yet allow online sports betting, but the push for it is growing stronger by the day. With 20 million residents, it obviously presents as a major sports betting target of the future.
In the meantime, Bet365’s New Jersey sportsbook clearly has quite a bit of tweaking to do if it wants to be competitive. FanDuel and secondly DraftKings will especially offer stiff competition. The two cleverly used the millions of established users of their sports fantasy sites to get themselves up and running.
Bet365 employs its own in-house software to drive their sportsbook and right now it might be a little too British-orientated. For instance, it lists ‘American football’ and not ‘football’ as the game is known in the USA.
Furthermore, their NFL football betting markets are still small. Right now they are only offering the standard over/under, money line and spread betting options.
To be fair, however, this looks very much like a temporary measure. Its football betting markets could well have been improved by the start of the football season proper.
You get that feeling when you click on MBA Baseball or NCAA Football. Here their betting markets are as extensive and exciting as you’ll find anywhere.
Footnote: British billionaire and CBE Denise Coates, 51, is the founder of Bet365. With brother John Coates, she is also Bet365’s joint CEO. Forbes gives her net worth as USD 4.6 billion. Her salary last year was reported to be 265 million UK pounds.
