bestslotslist.com Q&A: Jackpocket’s John Worthington on NJ Online Casino Launch

Lottery app Jockpocket is riding last week’s high of Mega Millions fame resulting from the frenzy to buy tickets for Friday’s $1.3 billion jackpot.

New Jersey’s western neighbor saw the Pennsylvania Lottery site crash that day under a 1,700% traffic increase, ABC reports.

As a result, Jackpocket ranked No. 1 in the App Store’s entertainment category last week. This week, it discusses plans for its inaugural online casino app that will debut in the US iGaming testing capital, New Jersey.

To that end, New York-based Jackpocket created a vice president of interactive gaming role leading up to its New Jersey online casino launch. John Worthington speaks to bestslotslist.com about his new role.

The questions are in bold, and his responses follow verbatim.

bestslotslist.com Q&A with John Worthington

What are your goals for this role?

I’m thrilled to be at Jackpocket at such an incredible time of growth and excited to help the company launch into online casino as a new vertical. The ultimate goal is to create a new and exciting way for players to engage with us.

Your most recent role was in online sports betting outside of NJ (Betly). How will your switch to an online casino in New Jersey change your approach?

(I see also that your roles before that were in online casinos that did cross into NJ.)

I’ve been involved in a number of launches across both online casino and sports betting, and I’m excited to bring that experience to the Jackpocket online casino.

What do you need to do to prepare for your 2024 online casino launch?

We’re currently in the process of selecting technology and content providers, hiring some key positions to help us with the launch, and finalizing our go-to-market plans. It will be a very busy next couple of quarters to get ready.

How do you expect the lottery-to-casino crossover to compare to the more traditional sportsbook-to-casino conversions?

We expect a similar or better crossover of lottery-to-casino as we’d typically see from sportsbook-to-casino, but that will come down to executing on a great product catered to the customers already in our ecosystem. We’re looking to get a product out as quickly as we can, but won’t compromise on quality in the process.

How does the typical Jackpocket user differ from a traditional online casino user, and will your game catalog reflect that?

We’ll certainly offer the traditional game types online casino players know and love, but we’re also focused on catering specifically to the lottery players in our user base. You’ll see that reflected in our game catalog, as well as the overall experience for the customer.

Are there regulatory challenges associated with the fact that lottery couriers and online casinos are legally quite different?

For instance, will players be able to order lottery tickets using their casino account balance, or will they need to have two separate wallets?

We’re focused today on a great casino product that we can promote to our Jackpocket customers and to make that journey as seamless as possible.

What sort of market share do you think is reasonable to shoot for as a latecomer to the crowded NJ market?

Are you different enough to stand out?

We’re coming into a crowded and mature online casino market, but have been operating as a lottery courier in NJ for nearly three years as the leader in that space. We believe product differentiation and a loyal customer base [are] a great foundation to grow and look forward to sharing the product with the NJ market.

About the Author

Heather Fletcher

Heather Fletcher is the lead writer at NJ Gambling Sites, concentrating on online casino coverage. In March 2021, Fletcher began writing about online casino gambling as the lead writer for Online Poker Report. She holds a bachelor's degree in journalism from The Ohio State University, as well as a master's degree in journalism from New York University, and has now shifted to NJ Gambling Sites to lend her expertise.