Basketball’s back. Baseball’s back. So’s the NFL. Is it any wonder the most mature marketplace for sports betting outside Nevada broke records for the highest sports betting handle in a single month?
New Jersey’s online and retail sportsbooks collected a record $667.9 million in wagers in August, up 112 percent from July, based on statistics from the Division of Gaming Enforcement. The handle broke the former record of $614 million in Nevada set in November 2019.
August’s handle rose 127.5 percent from $293.6 million in August 2019 and exceeded the state’s previous high water mark of $562.7 million last November.
These figures come without the benefit of football, college or pro, mind you. Basketball generated $166.2 million in bets for the month, while baseball added $150 million, according to PlayNJ. The “other” sports, including hockey, generated $204.9 million.
That kind of production out of Atlantic City helped soften the blow of a casino industry just beginning to get some footing back after shutting down from mid-March to the beginning of July because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Before the Supreme Court overturned the ban on sports betting in 2018, Nevada was the model for sportsbooks. But sports betting was also not a major moneymaker. Those days are over and credit goes in large measure to online betting. In August, wagers done online accounted for 90 percent of the total in New Jersey.
The figures are no fluke, said David G. Schwartz, professor and gaming historian at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. “Sports betting is an area that is showing a lot of growth, but within the traditional casino resort, it would still be an ancillary revenue source. Since it is much more conducive to mobile betting, though, it has much bigger growth potential especially in the current pandemic atmosphere,” Schwartz told GGB News.
The steady climb in sports wagering in 2019 and early 2020 suggests that the growth was a trend that is reasonable to expect will continue as more sports come back, Jane Bokunewicz, coordinator of the Lloyd D. Levenson Institute of Gaming, Hospitality and Tourism at Stockton University told GGB News.
Through August, New Jersey surpassed more than $8 billion in sports wagers since launching in June 2018. From April through June, with casinos closed and limited sports, betting still generated revenues of $12 million, providing a lifeline to the industry, along with iGaming, she said.
What works to New Jersey’s advantage also works for other states, perhaps even more so. Take Pennsylvania.
“As surrounding states legalize mobile sports betting, I think you will see fewer people crossing borders to place bets, so state gaming revenues will be more dependent on population.” Schwartz said.
Pennsylvania has four million more residents than New Jersey. Do the math. Do the math in New York too once that state figures out what to do about online sports betting.
“It has long been suspected that gamblers in the Northeast would embrace legalized sports betting even more so than gamblers in Nevada,” Bokunewicz said. “The results since sports betting was legalized in New Jersey are proving the theory to be true.”
Nevada may have a good month or two, but is unlikely to put a dent in the handle enjoyed by New Jersey, Pennsylvania and New York.
Plus online sports wagering in Nevada accounts for around 50 percent of the total, Bokunewicz said. Nevada is also disadvantaged because the state requires in-person verification to register for online accounts. “But if the in-person requirement is removed, it could result in a surge in online sports wagering in Nevada.
“Conversely, Atlantic City casinos have an opportunity to grow brick-and-mortar wagering when casinos fully re-open post Covid-19,” Bokunewicz said.
