FanDuel, the New Jersey sports betting market leader, is now taking online wagers in neighboring Pennsylvania.
It went live there yesterday (Monday).
This brings to four the number of PA sportsbooks now legally able to take bets via smartphones and laptops.
The other three are Rivers Casino, Parx Casino, and SugarHouse which, like FanDuel, is also an off-shoot sportsbook from NJ.
DraftKings, the second biggest of NJ’s 14 sportsbooks, is expected to follow FanDuel and SugarHouse with PA online betting in the very near future. Word is it will go live prior to the start of the NFL’s 2019-2020 season.
In the first year that sportsbooks have been legal, more than 80% of NJ’s $3.2 billion in wagers came online. In other words, smartphone and laptop wagering has been the key to the Garden States runaway success.
In the past two months, NJ has out-performed every other state where sportsbooks are legal, including Nevada, the long-time betting hub of the US.
New Jersey has always allowed online sports betting
This has certainly been due to the fact that from inception NJ has allowed online wagering.
New Jersey’s population (9.2 million as opposed to Nevada’s 3.03 million) has also had a lot to do with its recent ascendancy. That is the view of well-schooled Nevada gaming authorities.
The fact that New Jersey’s neighbors, New York, and Pennsylvania have been hesitant to allow online wagering is another factor.
prohibits out-of-state online betting. However, large concentrations of the 19.56 million New York and 12.8 million Pennsylvania residents live close to the NJ borders. Many have been slipping in and out of New Jersey to make smartphone bets.
New York’s bid to get online wagering has been stalled by its Governor, Andre Cuomo, so crossing the Hudson to make a bet is a practice that should continue to benefit NJ for some time.
Pennsylvania is a different kettle of fish. It has taken its administration time to wake up, but now that it has, things could change.
The state’s large population and online expertise of FanDuel, SugarHouse, and soon-to-open DraftKings should send its betting graph soaring.
Pennsylvania’s gain will cost New Jersey some handle
And that could cost New Jersey some of its handle though not to the same as extent as New York could.
Looking at the timeline of Pennsylvania online betting, we note that Play SugarHouse was the first operator to launch an Android online betting app.
This was in May. In mid-July, it came up with another first when it went live with its iOS app.
Rivers Casino is owned and operated by the same company as SugarHouse. Don’t be surprised, then, if they too are soon operating their mobile betting service via both apps.
Because of its close proximity to Philadelphia, Parx Casino is an extremely popular brand name in the region. It will be interesting to see how this impacts on its wagering activities.
In the meantime, populous Pennsylvania’s would-be online punters can now to stay home and bet. They’ll just have to ensure they are 21 or older and inside state lines.
For the fewer that prefer in-person wagering at betting windows, they’ll have eight retail locations to go to.
Keep an eye on Pennsylvania. They do not yet have sufficient sportsbooks to challenge New Jersey or Nevada. However, they seem to have learnt a thing or two from New Jersey and could be getting ready to fly.
