New Jersey Taking Lead After PAPSA Ruling
Another month and another rip-roaring success for the New Jersey sports betting industry. Since the PASPA ruling last year, the Garden State has firmly established itself as the most betting-friendly market in the US.
The reason for its success has undoubtedly been the lack of regulation imposed on customers – which has been Nevada’s downfall – and the reasonable tax rate and licensing system. Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Indiana have sprung to life in the past few months, but it will be some time before they can compete against the darling of the US sports betting world.
October was another record month for New Jersey, who saw an 87% jump from last years revenue. October 2019 brought in $191,170,115 in revenue. It was Meadowlands that registered the largest revenue share with around half of this total.
Meadowlands is the operator for both FanDuel and Pointsbet. It is understood that the majority of the revenue posted comes from FanDuel’s app, although the Australian sportsbook has still done an admiral job in establishing itself in the Garden state.
So what other sportsbooks launched in New Jersey could compete with Fanduel? Well, first we need to look at their biggest rival in the country, DraftKings. The two companies began their life as fantasy sports operators before making the transition into sports betting in 2018. The adage, competition is good for business couldn’t be more relevant in the case of DraftKings and FanDuel. Their eagerness to beat the other one has meant that it is always one of these two who are first over the line – in New Jersey’s case it was FanDuel – but only just.
Can DraftKings and FoxBet Challenge FanDuel in New Jersey?
As it stands the only two sportsbooks that could possibly compete with Fanduel in 2020 are DraftKings and FoxBet who have an NJ license through the Resorts casino. However, their total revenue is still around a 30% less than Fanduel/PointsBet. Out of these two sportsbooks, it’s believed that DraftKings has recorded the majority of this revenue.
It appears that timing is everything at the moment. In Indiana, Draftkings were able to launch before FanDuel and have gone on to dominate the market share. This means that sportsbooks with later launch dates in NJ will have their work cut out for them if they are to stand a chance against FanDuel. Bet365/Unibet, BetMGM and SugarHouse have all launched their NJ products but are languishing around the $2-3 million revenue mark.
An interesting trend has emerged from NJ’s figures so far, and that is 80% of the state’s online gambling revenue comes from mobile apps. So, if any sportsbook is going to really compete against either of the two fantasy sports operators turned sportsbooks then they will need to have a state-of-the-art sports betting app.
Another factor is the welcome bonus which is especially in NJ, as sportsbooks look to attract new customers. The generous Fanduel bonus may well be part of the reason why the sportsbook has dominated the NJ market so far.