3 Things The Borgata Likes About New Jersey Online Gambling – So Far

Borgata President and COO Tom Ballance stopped by CNBC’s “Squawk Box” for a quick chat covering the first full month of regulated online gambling in New Jersey.

Borgata operates both an online casino and an online poker room that shares a platform and player pool with PartyPoker NJ.

Ballance’s take on the market to date was extremely positive, with three basic themes emerging from the conversation (which you can view in full below).

Cannibalization? What cannibalization?

Ballance was quick to dismiss fears that online gambling was somehow a threat to Borgata’s live gaming options.

“When we match up databases,” Ballance asserted, “the great majority of players who are playing online have not been to Borgata in well over a year.”

And, according to Ballance, the demographics of online players differ substantially from live casino patrons.

In short, Ballance argued, the online customer for Borgata is effectively “a different customer.”

The information advantage

Another point Ballance returned to frequently during the interview: Online casinos offer operators far more control over – and insight into –  customer behavior.

“There’s no way for a customer to come into [an online] casino and be unidentified,” Ballance noted. “Online, we actually have more controls than there are in brick and mortar.”

“We know every bet you’re making online.”

Poker works well online for Borgata

Borgata is the leading live poker room in New Jersey and forms one-half of a poker network with a 50% share of NJ’s online market. So it’s no surprise that Ballance was enthusiastic about Borgata’s online poker performance to date.

But he did offer some interesting insights on the topic, including the fact that Borgata is seeing more poker play than casino play online (although by what metric was left unsaid).

And, according to Ballance, “a lot of the poker players also cross over and play casino during their session.”

Watch the whole interview below

Photo credit: Racheal Grazias / Shutterstock.com

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