Mobile sports betting began in New York State last month; many expected it to take a big chunk out of New Jersey’s market.
For sports betting in January New York became the top market in the U.S. During January’s best month, a record $1.34 billion was wagered in New Jersey.
That was from the amount up to more than 40% N.J. Sports Betting and horse tracks will be handled in January 2021.
Online sports betting competition and winter storms from New York pose both new and familiar challenges to Atlantic City, according to Jane Bokunewicz, director of the Lloyd Levenson Institute at Stockton University.
Although the weather undoubtedly affected in-person gambling, she predicted it would be some time before it becomes clear how New York’s nascent online sports betting industry will affect New Jersey’s.
President of Atlantic City’s Hard Rock casino Joe Lupo was concerned about Atlantic City’s ongoing lackluster revenue from in-person gambling, totaling $192 million in January. In January 2020, after the Coronavirus pandemic began, the cost was $9 million more than it was.
Since New Year’s Day and a Saturday fell in January, the snowfall had a detrimental impact on many properties, as casino revenues have fallen behind pre-COVID 2020 levels,” he said. Our team members do a fantastic job to keep our property dynamite and restaurants open during the blizzard. I am extremely proud that Hard Rock Atlantic City continues to lead the market in casino revenue growth.
Gambling revenue for tracks and casinos was $381.6 million, up more than 10% from a year ago when internet and sports betting were included.
In January, nearly $138 million in internet gambling set a monthly record, an increase of almost 33% over a year ago, no doubt due to bad weather keeping gamblers at home. A decline of nearly 27% in sports betting revenue versus a year ago.
Total gambling revenue at Borgata was $92.3 million, up 22.5% from a year ago. Over 26% of this year’s winnings went to Hard Rock; $26.4 million went to Ocean Casino; 25.7 million went to Tropicana; 17.5 million went to Harrah’s; less than 1% went to Caesars; less than 1% went to Resorts, and less than 2% went to Bally’s.
N.J. Sports Betting, however, contend that these statistics are misleading because they share much of the online wagering money with technology partners, sportsbooks, and other third parties, which is why they focus on their core business, in-person gambling.
U.S. Supreme Court ruled that New Jersey may offer legal sports betting. Currently, 33 states and Washington DC offer legal sports betting.
Four years ago, New Jersey was leading the country in the money it handled in sports bets through its casinos and tracks.
However, when neighboring New York, with a vastly larger population, approved mobile sports betting, the state-recognized it would not last forever. U.S. sports bets are placed online for more than 80%.
With nearly $2 billion in sports bets, New York has taken over New Jersey’s sports betting crown four short weeks after launching mobile betting on Jan. 8. The previous best month for New Jersey was in October 2013, when it handled just over $1.3 billion.
Phil Murphy, the New Jersey governor, expected New York’s internet market to take a hit once his state went online. A few weeks ago, he spoke about people who drove, took trains, and even rode bicycles from New York into New Jersey to place bets on sports.
We thought from day one that sports betting legalized in New York would affect our business,” he said.
In the early stages, that might still happen, but not yet.
