New Jersey took in $184 million in wagers during the month of September, a figure that nearly doubled the $95 million bet in the state during August.
That growth was fueled both by the start of football season – traditionally the sport that generates the most revenue for sportsbooks in the United States – and the growth of online and mobile wagering in New Jersey.
Mobile Betting Outpaces Retail Locations
In total, about $90 million of that wagering total came from college and NFL football. Meanwhile, about $104 million was taken via wagering apps, a huge increase from the $21 million taken in mobile betting in August, when the online sector was just getting off the ground.
All told, the sportsbooks in the state took in about $24 million in revenue off the greatly increased handle.
At the moment, the majority of that money is being generated by DraftKings and FanDuel. The most successful of the retail locations in New Jersey continues to be the FanDuel Sportsbook at the Meadowloands, which took in more than $4.3 million in revenue during September. FanDuel’s mobile app also generated another $2.8 million in earnings.
But it is DraftKings that appears to be the name to beat when it comes to online sports betting. Resorts took in over $8.5 million from its online sports wagering operations, and while both DraftKings and BetStars are included in that number, BetStars was only launched the middle of September, suggesting that most of that total belongs to the daily fantasy sports giant.
Sports Betting Boosts New Jersey Gaming Industry
In a prepared statement, New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement Director David Rebuck praised the sports betting industry for helping to bolster the overall gaming numbers in New Jersey for September.
“Driven by the explosive growth in sports wagering and continuing improvements in Internet gaming and brick-and-mortar casino win results, the gaming industry produced another month of superb revenue increases,” Rebuck said. “The revenue results point to a strong finish for New Jersey’s gaming industry in 2018.”
Already, sports betting represents about 8.5 percent of total gaming revenue in New Jersey, and generated $2.6 million in tax revenue in September. In short, there’s no doubt that sports gambling has provided a boost for the state’s gaming industry.
In some ways, however, the numbers released by New Jersey regulators for September were somewhat underwhelming. In part, that’s because of comments made by Rebuck at the Global Gaming Expo in Las Vegas in the days before the figures were announced. Rebuck told an audience at G2E that the numbers would be “stunning.”
While the increase in handle was indeed significant, it wasn’t out of line with expectations considering the increasing availability of online betting and the start of football season.
It would be reasonable for officials to be happy with the growth, while also hoping that future Septembers will prove even more lucrative. According to ESPN, the last five Septembers have seen Nevada sportsbooks take in an average of $450 million in wagers, a number that could serve as a target for the New Jersey industry in years to come.