The appetite for sports betting continues to grow in New Jersey.
In October, the state’s online and retail sportsbooks enjoyed their first-ever $800 million month, despite COVID-19 restrictions that limited capacity in casinos as well as a still-slightly-reduced number of sporting events taking place around the world.
The state’s online and retail sportsbooks combined to do $803.1 million in bets in October, according to official data released Friday. Those bets easily surpassed the then-record $748.6 million handle gained in September. Even more, the number is up 64.6% from October 2019, when they combined to do $487.9 million.
Not surprisingly, online betting accounted for 92.6% of October’s handle.
What is surprising: Despite months of shutdowns and slowdowns due to COVID-19, New Jersey sportsbooks have now generated $4.1 billion this year — which more than puts the state on pace to break the full-year record of $5.3 billion, set by Nevada in 2019.
October’s action was fueled by a schedule — which included a full slate of NFL games, college football and the World Series, in addition to the atypical NBA Finals — that was relatively normal. Football generated $278.9 million in bets in October, baseball added $93.9 million while basketball chipped in $28.5 million. And, if a recent proposal to allow betting on in-state college games is approved, New Jersey could open another avenue to generate action.
FanDuel Sportsbook/PointsBet topped online operators with $29.3 million in gross revenue, up from $25.1 million in September. FanDuel was followed in revenue by:
- Resorts Digital/DraftKings/Fox Bet ($14.6 million, up from $4.8 million in September);
- Ocean Casino/William Hill ($3.2 million, up from $2.3 million);
- BetMGM/Borgata ($3.2 million, down from $3.7 million);
- Monmouth/William Hill/Sugarhouse/TheScore ($3.1 million, up from $2.3 million);
- Hard Rock/Bet365/Unibet ($1.1 million, up from $947,986);
- Caesars Sportsbook/888sport ($395,548, up from $244,974);
- Tropicana/William Hill ($158,692, up from $109,185);
- Golden Nugget/BetAmerica (-$109,670, down from $168,391).
Dustin Gouker, lead analyst at PlayNJ.com, said the numbers speak well for the state.
“The record-setting pace has now continued even as October’s sports schedule returned to something more resembling normal, which is a great sign for the industry’s near-term,” he said.
“New Jersey is now clearly the standard-bearer among legal sports jurisdictions, and the state seems to only be widening the gap.”
