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New Jersey Monthly Sportsbook Handle Leaps Back to $1 Billion+
By Jeff Osienya Apr 23, 2022 IndustryThe Garden State has reclaimed its billion-dollar glory after sports fans in the state wagered over $1 billion for the sixth month in March, to bounce back from February’s slip. 92.06% of the action came from online and mobile wagering.In 2018, the Supreme Court of the United States passed a landmark ruling repealing the PASPA of 1992, to give all states the liberty to legalize sports betting as they saw fit. New Jersey emerged as one of the first states to jump into the regulated sports betting bandwagon and has since been one of the industry leaders in the US gaming scene.
For instance, in September last year, the Garden State became the first US jurisdiction to take $1 billion worth of sports bets in a single month. Since breaking that ceiling, the state continued shining, for five months straight but the winning streak ended in February after a slowed-down sports calendar. However, thanks to the much-anticipated March Madness tournament last month, the state’s impressive sports betting market broke the $1 Billion mark for a remarkable sixth time after processing $1.12 billion in sports bets. This marks a return to the great results the state has been posting.
It’s an impressive fete that shows just how far ahead NJ is compared to other states when it comes to regulated sports betting. To date, no other US state has managed to bring in that much handle for that many months. Nevada comes a close second, haven collected over $1 billion worth of sports wagers for four straight months between October 2021 and January 2022. If the Silver State sees a ten-figure handle in March, it will close that gap further.
Big Bucks, No Whammies!
March is predominantly a busy time in the US sports betting scene. March Madness usually takes much of the attention of bettors, with the NBA playoffs also knocking on the door. New Jersey had one of its own, The St Peter’s peacocks who were carving out a Cinderella run by upsetting the big wigs like number 2 seeded Kentucky and the number 3 seeded Purdue Boilermakers to advance to the Elite Eight round of the NCAA tournament. However, New Jersey residents could not wager on their team’s underdog story as the state has a ban in place on wagering on in-state collegiate programs.
For the Garden State, online and mobile sports betting unsurprisingly made up a majority of the $1.21 billion figure. In total, online and mobile wagering contributed 1.04 billion or 92.96% of the state’s total handle in March, a figure that was up 15.8% from February’s figure of $899.6 Million. Additionally, the overall handle was 13.7% higher than the $985.6 million spent by sports bettors in February and was also a 30.4% jump compared to the $859.6 million handle garnered in March 2021.
On the revenue side of things, it was obvious that once the total handle increased, the revenue would too. Therefore, the total revenue from sports betting increased in March from February by 115.1% from the previous figure of $30.9 Million to $66.40 million. The state also did pretty well when it came to its iGaming market which brought in a record $140.7 million posted in gambling revenue. This was also a significant improvement from the $130 million posted in February.
Usual Suspects Lead the Way in New Jersey’s Retail Sportsbooks
As is the norm, the biggest names in the entire US sports betting scene are the ones blazing the trail in New Jersey. Meadowlands Racetrack which has a partnership with FanDuel, PointsBet, and SuperBook, brought home the lion's share of March’s revenue by generating $ 36.4 million, a figure which accounts for 55.5% of the total $66.4 million raised.
Resorts International which joined forces with DraftKings, and FOX Bet came in second with a reported $11.7 million accounting for 17.6% of the total. Lastly, Borgata and BetMGM reported $10.6million accounting for 15.9% of the total revenue.
Casino Owners Not Impressed by the Latest Round of Figures
You’d think the Casino owners would be ecstatic about the latest round of results, but as it turns out, the results still do not meet their expectations. The Casinos and tracks made $423 million in gambling and sports revenue. This is nearly 18% up from last year’s figures at around a similar time.
Casino owners in the Garden State, however, do not seem to consider this climb a win because as you’ll remember in March last year, we were still dealing with the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Most of the establishments including casinos were closed down. Going back to 2020 also does not cut it, as that was the onset of the pandemic, and the state-imposed restrictions were starting to kick in.
A comparison against 2019 is a fairer assessment of the performance of casinos in the Garden State in March. And so, according to the latest results published by the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement, casinos made $382.9 million in revenue this year as compared to 273.7 million in 2019. That still doesn’t seem to move many casino executives in New Jersey who argue that much of that amount is made up of sports betting and internet money, much of which, casinos do not get to keep.
New York Continues to Pose a Serious Threat to NJ’s Leaderboard Status
For some time now, New Jersey has held down that number one spot in the betting circles. However, New York is knocking on the door with numbers backing it up, to dethrone New Jersey. Barely 100 days since the Empire state legalized sports betting, it recently reported passing the $5 billion mark for its lifetime handle. New Jersey had previously held the record of clearing the $5 billion mark in 16 months.
The competition which should ultimately be healthy comes on the back of the widespread legalization of sports betting in many states across the country. 33 states have already hopped onto the sports betting train, and more are about to follow suit. Without a doubt, the burgeoning industry is about to get even more competitive. As the bettors, we can only sit back and enjoy the predictably exciting times coming our way. With the NBA playoffs and the NHL playoffs commencing, April is sure to be another exciting month in the sports betting markets across the country.
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