Who guessed $931.6 million? That would be the NJ sports betting handle for the month of November.
Here’s an even bigger number: $5 billion.
That would be the year-to-date amount wagered from NJ bettors. What makes this number stand out even more is the fact that there were no major pro sports during the months of April, May and June as a result of the global pandemic.
The New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement released the November figures earlier today. And in the process, the Garden State shattered yet another record in total amount wagered for any legal U.S. sports betting jurisdiction.
Call it the new normal in 2020.
For those keeping tabs, it shatters the previous mark of $803 million set in October. If we are talking percentages, the increase from October to November is a whopping $86.2%.
NJ sports betting revenue came in at $50.5 million, which is a 53.7% increase from the same period last year.
Here is a closer look at some of the highlights from the latest report.
How high will NJ sports betting handle go?
One would think that when the Major League Baseball, the NBA and the NHL crowned their respective champions earlier this fall, the industry would’ve slowed down.
Yes, NFL betting is by far the most popular among bettors, but the variety of pro sports offerings would spread the money around. November is prime NFL season, but there was college football and basketball along with The Masters.
Yet if we do a month-to-month comparison since the return of sports, the current offerings are clearly generating the biggest numbers by a wide margin. Here’s a look back at the recent monthly amounts wagered:
- July handle: $315.1 million
- August handle: $667.9 million
- September handle: $748.5 million
- October handle: $803 million
And getting back to the $5 billion number, 2020 is already ahead of the $4.58 billion in wagers made in 2019. And the current number doesn’t even factor in December totals.
Plus, last year wasn’t impacted by a global pandemic.
And for those states still on the fence regarding whether or not to approve mobile sports betting, just look at New Jersey.
In November alone, 93.6% of bets were placed via NJ online sportsbooks. In-person registration isn’t required.
FanDuel + Meadowlands = winning ticket, again
Meadowlands Racetrack, the land-based partner of FanDuel Sportsbook and PointsBet NJ, continues to be the biggest winner when it comes to NJ sports betting revenue.
The other 11 license holders didn’t even come close.
The Meadowlands reported $24.8 billion for November, and it’s NJ Gambling Sites’ understanding that FanDuel accounts for the bulk of it.
Resorts Digital (consisting of DraftKings Sportsbook, Fox Bet and Resorts online sportsbook) finished an extremely distant second with $14.6 million.
If we break it down by market share, Meadowlands accounts for 48.9%, while Resorts comes in at 27.4%. That leaves less than 25% of the pie for the rest of the market, which currently consists of 19 operators.
Is $1 billion in monthly handle a reality?
So if somebody predicted at the beginning of the year that New Jersey would take in more than $900 million in monthly bets, would you have believed it?
Forget about the pandemic.
Here’s the reality. Some may have thought October’s $803 million would be the NJ sports betting plateau. It clearly wasn’t. Now that Garden State bettors have shattered the $900 million mark, $1 billion suddenly doesn’t seem so unrealistic.
Eventually, New Jersey will reach the top of the mountain, but at this point, who knows what number that will be?
Suddenly New Jersey, not Las Vegas, has established itself as the unstoppable US sports betting leader.
Photo by Associated Press