New Jersey Sports Betting Handle Skyrockets To $330M In November
By Brett Smiley | Published: December 12, 2018 at 3:40 pmThe growing New Jersey sports betting market reached a new betting handle high in November — surging to $330.7 million, up from the previous high of $260.7 million in October, the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement reported on Wednesday.
Online/mobile sports betting is driving the growth as November’s online handle reached $238.6 million, an increase of $64.2 million from October’s $174.4 million. But the sports bettors had their say in November, limiting revenue to $21.2 million on a 6.4 percent hold. New Jersey sportsbooks saw their best revenue month in September when they collected $24 million on a $184 million handle, for a hold of 13 percent.
Who’s leading the pack? Once again, it’s the DraftKings Sportsbook and FanDuel Sportsbook.
Dominance of DFS-operators-turned-sportsbooks
DraftKings’ revenue is coming foremost via its online sportsbook, as its first physical sportsbook in New Jersey just opened on Nov. 20 at the Resorts Casino in Atlantic City, supplanting the small SB Tech-run Resorts-branded sportsbook that opened in August.
Here’s the revenue breakdown for the $238.6 million wagered online at New Jersey sportsbooks (property/licensee listed then the operator):
- Bally’s (Caesars and 888): $205,046
- Borgata (playMGM): $194,212
- Meadowlands Racetrack (FanDuel Sportsbook): $4,437,916
- Monmouth Park (William Hill and Play SugarHouse): $1,521,295
- Ocean Resort (William Hill): $915,930
- Resorts Digital (DraftKings Sportsbook and BetStars NJ): $7,172,171
Per Jamie Shea, DraftKings’ Senior Director of Digital Sportsbook, DK still accounts for over 95 percent of the revenue share of Resorts Digital, which spells roughly $6.8 million of the November haul (assuming the same hold percentage).
“DraftKings continues to set the pace in New Jersey sports betting,” Shea said. “Since August, DraftKings has taken more than 8 million bets and paid out $250 million to sports fans. Our new retail sportsbook at Resorts had a strong first month, capped with an exciting consumer event this past weekend. No one understands the American sports fan like DraftKings.”
Why the focus above on mobile/online? Well, the lion’s share of the betting handle and revenue is coming via mobile/online betting. Of the $330.7 million handle, $238.6 million comes via online accounts (72 percent of all wagers), up from 69 percent in October. Overall, $14.4 million in online revenue of a total $21.2 million comes out to 68 percent, so at least in theory online bettors are slightly better gamblers than their land-based counterparts.
Many including Sports Handle have predicted that the New Jersey market’s total handle will eventually surpass that of Nevada — with a population of only about one-third of New Jersey’s.
But it’s not there yet: in October, the most recent month for which we have data, Nevada sportsbooks reported $528 million in handle and $29.5 million revenue. Obviously the arrow is pointing upwards for New Jersey, but there’s still a lot of ground to make up.
What they’re betting
Football isn’t parsed between NFL and NCAA college football, but combined football betting easily eclipses the other sports, as well as total parlay wagers for which the hold is routinely higher.
For basketball the report likewise doesn’t indicate NBA versus NCAA college basketball betting. As the NBA continues to strike deals with sportsbook operators and third-parties disseminating its data, and generally embrace sports wagering with new quarter-by-quarter NBA League Pass access, catering to bettors and DFS players, it will be interesting to see if NBA handle continues to rise. In the future we’ll be able to compare to Nevada.
Those baseball numbers reflect the settling of futures bets and also new futures/props. New Jersey uses an accrual method of accounting that counts revenue at the time that wagers are placed, with losses indicated in subsequent reports.
What’s “other”? Anything and everything not otherwise itemized. That’s boxing, mixed-martial arts, soccer, cricket and.. darts!
New Jersey sportsbooks took a wager in December that would mark the one-billionth dollar wagered — with November YTD handle indicating $928,116,793.
