Online casino revenue for New Jersey

(PRESS RELEASE) -- New Jersey’s legal online gambling industry continued to show strength in May, generating the second-highest gross revenue total in the industry’s nearly five-year history. And with legal sports betting now rolling out at the state's casinos and racetracks, New Jersey's online casino industry is entering a new era of growth, according to analysts at PlayNJ.

“Legal sports betting will add rocket fuel to the already-impressive growth rates for New Jersey's legal online casinos,” said Steve Ruddock, lead analyst for PlayNJ “Online sports betting should reach thousands of new customers and inject millions of dollars into what is already a thriving industry.”

New Jersey online casinos generated $24.3 million in gross revenue in May, according to New Jersey’s monthly Internet Gross Revenue Report, released Wednesday. That is up 5.6 percent from $23.02 million in April, and behind only the record $25.6 million that New Jersey’s online casino hauled in during March.

As impressive as those tallies are, the potential impact of sports betting on New Jersey’s online gambling industry is hard to understate.

PlayNJ research forecasts that New Jersey's sports betting market could be worth more than $500 million annually at maturity, with nearly half of that revenue coming from online sports betting. But the revenue benefits do not stop there.

“The addition of sports betting will also create crossover customers that will expand the revenue pie for online casino games,” Ruddock said.

Daily fantasy sports titans DraftKings, which has partnered with with Resorts Atlantic City, and FanDuel, which merged with European bookmaker Paddy Power Betfair in May, are each preparing to open online sportsbooks in New Jersey. DraftKings, which announced its application for a New Jersey Jersey sports betting license this week, has already launched its first sports betting ad campaign in New Jersey.

Both DraftKings and FanDuel are expected to launch casino games alongside their sports betting offerings.

“DraftKings and FanDuel add splashy brands to New Jersey’s online gambling market, and will help energize the industry,” said Ruddock. "The first New Jersey sportsbooks are slated to open tomorrow, and in the ensuing weeks and months we will see many others join the fray.”

May also marked an expansion of online poker in New Jersey. An interstate online poker pact took effect on 1 May. As a result, revenue climbed to $1.9 million in May from less than $1.8 million in April.

“This is good news for online poker, which has languished in recent years,” Ruddock said. “An expansion in the player pool should pay dividends for what has become an almost forgotten vertical.”