What is expected to be the busiest sports book in New Jersey began operations at the Meadowlands Racetrack in the shadow of New York City and immediately reported heavy action at the betting windows.
The FanDuel Victory Sports Bar & Club is the fourth live sports book to open the state, behind Monmouth Park Racetrack to the south and two Atlantic City casinos. The Meadowlands facility, however, is just minutes from Manhattan and is also in the same complex where the NFL’s New York Giants and Jets Play.
Despite it being a slow season for sports betting, initial reports—though not official numbers released by the state—had more than $1 million being bet at the facility on its opening weekend.
The first bet at the facility was placed July 14 by former state Senator Raymond Lesniak, a steady proponent of expanding gambling in the state and one of the principal forces in the state’s push to overturn a federal ban on sports betting. He placed an ultimately winning bet on France to win the World Cup and also a bet on the New York Giants to win the Super Bowl.
The opening also coincided with a major race at the track—the Meadowlands Pace—which helped bring large crowds to the new sports books.
“Our goal was to do over $1 million for the weekend,” track owner Jeff Gural told NJTV, the state’s PBS station. “I know we were at $560,000 on Saturday and before I went to sleep last night we were at $465,000 or something for Sunday, so I was very pleased.”
Those figures already surpassed the daily average of $480,954 in bets Monmouth Park averaged over its first 17 days in operation. According to figures released by the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement, Monmouth Park saw a sports betting handle of $8.176 million for June. That sports book opened June 14.
The first report on sports betting by the division said the state’s three operating sports books took in $16.4 million in total handle for June, keeping about $3.5 million in revenue. That figure, however, includes bets of future events and uncashed winning tickets. Total win for the state was reported at about $1.2 million with the state collecting about $294,000 in taxes.
The FanDuel facility opened with 10 betting windows and officials said they hope to up that to 15 by the start of the NFL season. The Victory Bar features nine large video screens showing games and betting odds and many patrons said it had a nightclub-like feel. The 5,300-sqaure-foot bar has 27 video screens overall.
Gural said that he hopes to work out a deal with both the Giants and Jets to provide shuttle service between their stadium and the sports book, according to reports. MetLife Stadium officials told ESPN they have made no decision on the plan.
FanDuel’s Tech Partners
Meanwhile FanDuel, now a subsidiary of Paddy Power Betfair, announced it has partnered with IGT, which will provide FanDuel Group’s sports betting platform. The group also has a partnership with GAN plc.
According to a press release, FanDuel will leverage Paddy Power Betfair’s leading pricing, trading and risk management capabilities, which have been integrated into the IGT platform, along with a bespoke user interface to offer a best-in-class consumer experience. The joint solution will operate as FanDuel Sportsbook.
“We are delighted to choose IGT’s leading platform for our sports betting platform in New Jersey, starting with the recent ‘go live’ at the Meadowlands Racetrack,” said Matt King, FanDuel Group CEO in the release. “When we evaluated sports betting platform provider partners in the U.S., IGT was the ideal choice, based on the company’s proven history in the space and the quality, reliability and flexibility of the sports betting technology that it has deployed for customers around the world.”
The partnership includes an eventual move into online sports betting, the release said. According to the Associated Press, FanDuel plans to offer online sports betting through its partnership with the racetrack and other online gaming through its affiliation with the Golden Nugget in Atlantic City. GAN and IGT will provide the technology platform for both.
In a press release, GAN said it is working to complete the integration into the GAN Platform of FanDuel’s nominated Internet sports betting software which is a combination of IGT’s sports platform and Paddy Power Betfair’s leading pricing, trading and risk management technology, along with a user interface designed for the US customer by the FanDuel team.
“Online sports betting ‘go-live’ preparations for FanDuel are well advanced and we remain confident in launching integrated sports betting alongside our existing Internet casino later this year,” said GAN CEO Dermot Smurfit in the release.
New Sports Betting License Applications
Also, New Jersey regulators announced that they have received five new applications for sports books. The DGE had issued a warning to potential operators that if they want approval by the start of the NFL season, they had to apply by early last week.
David Rebuck, director of division, told the AP that applications were made by two brick-and-mortar facilities and three applications were made for online gambling by the unofficial deadline. Missing the deadline has no penalty for applicants, it simply means that regulators will probably not have time to approve an application by the start of the NFL season.
“Everybody wants to be fully functional by the end of August,” Rebuck told the wire service. “We’ll see.”
Rebuck did not identify the applicants, but the AP reported that Caesars Entertainment made applications to offer live sports betting at its Harrah’s and Bally’s Atlantic City casinos. The Bally’s sports book would also serve the adjacent Caesars Atlantic City.
The company also applied for permission to offer mobile sports betting affiliated with all three of its Atlantic City casinos, according to Kevin Ortzman, the company’s Atlantic City regional president.
The Golden Nugget casino also applied for in-person and mobile sports betting, according to its executive vice president, Tom Pohlman.
The applications for live sports books include permission to reconfigure areas of the casinos for sports betting and approval to license employees for the sports books. According to the Press of Atlantic City, the petition from Bally’s proposes using 3,648 square feet inside its Wild Wild West area for a temporary sports book. Seating, tables and video displays will be installed and existing cashier windows will be reopened to take sports wagers, the petition said.
The Harrah’s petition proposes eliminating 11 slot machines and installing video displays, seating and furniture for a temporary sports book area. The petition also proposes a modification to the satellite Total Rewards Center for sports wagering windows, the Press reported.
Details of Golden Nugget’s plans were not released. The casino has partnered with Churchill Downs to offer sports betting.
If approved, the three casinos would join the Borgata and the newly opened Ocean Resort casino in Atlantic City as offering sports books.
Applications had also been made before the deadline by Resorts casino, which has announced a partnership with FanDuel rival DraftKings. The application was for both online and live sports betting at the casino, the AP reported.
DraftKings founders Jason Robins and Matt Kalish recently tweeted, however, that the company is working on a sports betting app, though did not give a timeline on its launch. DraftKings also recently announced it will partner with the Del Lago Resort & Casino in Waterloo, New York, should that state approve sports betting.
There have also been reports that DraftKings is preparing to launch a fundraising drive hoping to raise about $200 million for its sports betting product. DraftKings has opened an office in Hoboken N.J. and announced a deal with platform provider Kambi.
Hard Rock Atlantic City has also made an application for a sports book license, according to the AP. The casino has reportedly partnered with Bet365 for a possible online site.
Under the state’s sports betting law, there are 14 potential licensees for sports betting including Atlantic City’s nine casinos, three state racetracks and two former racetracks. The application fee for a sports betting license is $100,000.
In another story, SportAd, a Washington DC-based sports gaming startup also announced it is partnering with Ocean Resort casino to offer its “FastFantasy” game in New Jersey. The game combines sports betting formats with fantasy sports scoring into real-money contests that will be playable across Ocean Resort’s digital and mobile channels, and featured in the Atlantic City casino’s new sportsbook, the company said in a release.
The game focuses on creating proposition bets and first launched in July 2017 in New Jersey’s regulated online gaming market through SportAD’s partnership with Resorts Digital, and has since expanded to other regulated states, the release said.
Leagues Respond to Monmouth Park Suit
Finally, lawyers for the four major professional sports leagues and the NCAA replied to a lawsuit brought by the New Jersey Horse Racing Association to collect betting revenue that was lost while the leagues fought to block the state’s efforts to legalize sports betting—calling the suit frivolous.
New Jersey spent an estimated $9 million in a long battle to overturn the federal Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act. That battle culminated in May when the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the law as unconstitutional.
The lawsuit charges the leagues acted in bad faith when they got a restraining order in 2014 to block Monmouth Park Racetrack from offering sports betting. The association says the track lost close to $140 million during the several years of litigation.
Lawyers for the leagues say they were exercising their rights under the former federal law, according to a report by the AP.
