New Year, Same Old Success For Surging Online Casinos In New Jersey

Online gambling sites in New Jersey started the new year right where they left off in 2019.

NJ online casinos and poker sites won a combined $55 million in January, blowing past the previous record set the month prior. NJ online sportsbooks added another $46.7 million to bring January’s total haul past the $100 million milestone across all verticals.

Data comes from the latest report published by the NJ Division of Gaming Enforcement.

NJ online gambling highlights: January 2020

Here’s what stands out from the January 2020 numbers for online casinos and poker sites:

• Online casino/poker revenue of $55,086,590 topped the previous record set in December.
• Stand-alone online casino revenue of $53,254,379 is also a new record for that sector.
• Online poker revenue rose for the second month in a row to $1,832,211.
• Revenue was up more than 60% compared to January 2019 ($33.6 million).

Market leader Golden Nugget drove much of that January growth.

Its online casino revenue of $21.2 million marks another new record, surpassing its previous best (November 2019) by more than $2 million. In fact, its digital casino, once again, out-earned its brick-and-mortar property in the Marina District of Atlantic City. Unlike the other leaders, Golden Nugget’s online revenue comes entirely from casino games.

Resorts has settled into the role of the perennial silver medalist, a trend which continued last month. It reported January revenue of $11.9 million, essentially matching its record from the final month of 2019. Its growth over the past year largely stems from the addition of DraftKings Casino in late 2018.

No other operator had previously reached eight figures, but Borgata finally crossed that milestone in January. Its network, which includes BetMGM, churned out a combined $10.4 million in revenue across poker and casino products.

NJ online gambling revenue breakdown

Revenue / ∆ Monthly / ∆ Yearly:

• Total: $55.1 million / +11.7% / +64.0%
• Online casinos: $53.5 million / +11.9% / +67.9%
• Online poker: $1.8 million / +5.6% / -2.7%

We have officially run out of words to describe the monthly performance of NJ online casinos. Revenue climbed past $53 million in January, growing an already thriving market by double-digit percentage points. The previous record (November 2019) was a still-impressive $47.6 million.

A rush of expansion and innovation seems to be paying dividends for operators, including these recent announcements of note:

• Tropicana and Virgin get virtual NBA betting
• DraftKings Casino partners with Scientific Games
• Hard Rock adds live online slots

NJ online poker sites are experiencing a rare streak of success themselves, growing incrementally for the second period in a row. It wasn’t much of a growth spurt, frankly — yielding just $1.8 million — but it sure beats the alternative. Unfortunately, much of that increase comes from PokerStars and its one-off Winter Series.

The wider context is even less encouraging for a sector that is barely half as profitable as it was at launch five years ago.

NJ online sports betting revenue

• Total NJ sports betting: $53.5 million
• Online sports betting: $46.7 million

Sportsbooks in New Jersey wrote a total of $540 million in tickets for January, yielding a combined win of $53,561,626. As is always the case in states with multichannel industries, the vast majority of that action came via the internet.

Online sportsbooks alone won more than $46 million, a new record in a busy month of action. Digital is clearly king, but FanDuel Sportsbook does also continues to post respectable numbers from its prime retail location near New York City. It is, not coincidentally, the market leader among online books, too.

See more of January’s sports betting data at Legal Sports Report.

Detailed numbers by operator/product