New Jersey’s sports betting market was hit incredibly hard by the coronavirus pandemic in April.
According to figures from the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement (NJDGE), sports betting handle in the state amounted to $54.6m in April, an 82.6% drop on the $313.17m wagered the year prior.
Sports betting revenue for the month amounted to $2.6m in April, down 87.6% on the revenue generated this time last year.
On a month-on-month basis, betting activity was down 66.6% on the $163.4m wagered in March 2020.
The drop in handle and revenue can be attributed to the shutdown of almost all major sporting events and the closure of casino sportsbooks in the state due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Breaking down the figures
Meadowlands, and its sub-licensees FanDuel and PointsBet, continued to lead New Jersey’s sports betting market in April. According to the figures, the licensee generated $1.6m in revenue from betting activities. While Meadowlands’ betting revenue was 86.8% lower than the $12.2m generated in April 2019, this was more than double the amount other operators generated from betting operations.
Resorts Digital, which houses DraftKings and Fox Bet under its sports betting license, generated $604,359 from sports betting in April, a year-on-year decrease of 87.3%.
Monmouth Park was the only other license holder to generate more than $100,000 in sports betting revenue. The operator generated $182,096 from sports betting, a 96.9% drop on last year’s figures.
What did people bet on?
Technically, New Jersey doesn’t report handle per sport each month, instead, the figures include year-to-date completed events handle in every monthly report.
This includes figures for football, basketball, baseball, parlays and “other” sports. In the latest report, the handle for other sporting events rose by $40.9m. This accounts for about 75% of the state’s total betting handle in April.
Normally, the other sports category would include soccer, tennis and hockey, but there were very few of these events to bet on, due to the sports shutdown. Instead, the majority of other sporting events consisted of darts, table tennis and esports events.
NJ iGaming market thrives
Unlike sports betting, the New Jersey online gambling market saw a significant increase in revenue thanks to cross-selling from online sports betting.
In April, iGaming revenue amounted to $80m, an increase of 23.4% on the $64.8m generated in March. April’s iGaming revenue was more than double the amount generated the same time last year.
