FREEHOLD, N.J. (AP) — A New Jersey horse racing track is making its move to catch up with the pack in the state’s hot sports betting market.
Sports betting in New Jersey has exploded in recent years, with the Garden State now rivaling Nevada as America’s biggest betting market. To bet on sports in New Jersey, you need to be at least 21 years of age and must be physically present in the state, even when wagering online.
Freehold Raceway, which began taking in-person sports bets in October, has signed a deal with PlayUp, an Australian online sports betting company, to offer mobile sports betting. The agreement was reached Tuesday.
Freehold Raceway is affiliated with Parx Casino in Pennsylvania to offer sports betting in New Jersey.
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“Parx Casino is happy to partner with PlayUp in New Jersey as they debut their international expertise of online sports betting in the United States,” said Matthew Cullen, Parx’s senior vice president of interactive gaming and sports.
Laila Mintas, CEO of PlayUp USA, said it hopes to launch its Freehold venture in the first quarter of 2021. The company is also licensed in Colorado and provides sports betting, horse race betting and daily fantasy sports in Australia, New Zealand and India.
The company on Thursday announced an agreement with the New Jersey Devils hockey team and the arena in which they play in Newark that will provide exposure for the team via broadcasts, a logo on the ice and other promotions.
New Jersey is the nationwide leader in sports betting; state gambling regulators revealed Wednesday that the state had taken just under $1 billion worth of sports bets in December alone, the latest in a string of monthly sports betting volume records in the U.S.
The state took in over $6 billion worth of sports bets last year, the overwhelming majority of which were placed online.
Freehold had been seeking an online component since its launch last fall, and had hoped to have one up and running by last November.
The track reported $291,632 in sports betting revenue last year, all of it from bets taken in person.
The runaway leader in sports betting revenue among New Jersey tracks was the Meadowlands in East Rutherford. It won more than $206 million in sports bets last year. In addition to its strategic location just outside New York City, it is affiliated with the online sportbook FanDuel.
Monmouth Park in Oceanport, near the Jersey Shore, won $25.4 million last year.
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New Jersey sports betting is here, both for physical sportsbooks and now for online wagering, including for the Super Bowl.
What online sportsbooks are currently live in NJ?
- playMGM
- William Hill
- Hard Rock
- PointsBet
- Resorts
Who launched when in NJ?
DraftKings Sportsbook was the first mobile platform to launch on Aug. 1, and it held a monopoly on the market for more than three weeks.
The playMGM sports betting app went live on Aug. 22, and the arrival of SugarHouse Sportsbook a day later brought the running count to three. A week later, both FanDuel Sportsbook and William Hilljoined the online sports betting realm.
Caesars added mobile betting on Sept. 6, just in the nick of time for NFL season. The following Monday, 888 Sportsbook appeared in the market. Then came BetStars, incorporating sportsbook functionality into its existing PokerStarsNJ platform.
New Jersey Mobile Sports Betting Revenue
Casinos and racetracks are permitted to form as many as three online partnerships apiece — and several are in place — but they must have a physical sportsbook first. Eight NJ casinos and racetracks have retail sportsbooks at the moment.
Here’s the current landscape for both brick-and-mortar sportsbooks and their associated online brands:
Resorts Atlantic City and DraftKings Sportsbook
Resorts AC has multiple sports betting partnerships under its belt. One of them involves DraftKings Sportsbook, which was officially the first to market with a legal online sports betting site and app.
The DraftKings sports betting soft-launched on Aug. 1, and the full launch came on Monday, Aug. 6. The app and browser-based online sportsbook are fully functional, offering a wide variety of traditional and in-game bets.
In November, DraftKings announced it would operate the retail sportsbook inside of Resorts — its first brick-and-mortar implementation.
Get a look at the online/mobile platform here.
Resorts and BetStars
Resorts has been the most active of the Atlantic City casinos, evidently the first to use up its allotment of three online brands.
Early in August, the casino expanded its long-standing partnership with The Stars Group to include sports betting. The group has years of experience with Resorts, offering NJ online poker and casino platforms under the PokerStars brand.
BetStars sportsbook launched on Sept. 13. Its iOS app launched Oct. 20.
SBTech, too
Resorts also has a new partnership with B2B heavyweight SBTech. Under its stewardship, the retail sportsbook opened on property in early August.
Resorts launched its self-branded online/mobile platform in January 2019.
Borgata and playMGM
In the Marina District of Atlantic City, the beautiful Borgata launched sports betting on property on June 14. A little more than two months later, it started offering online wagering via a standalone playMGM sports betting app. First available only on Android, the iOS version went live Oct. 20.
Borgata is using its existing racebook as a temporary, hybrid space on property, but expansion is on the horizon. Back in December, MGM said the property would invest $7 million in a new standalone sportsbook. Timeline? Uncertain right now.
Borgata is owned by MGM, which serves up mobile betting in Nevada through playMGM, as well. The brand is also available as a NJ online casino, but the products are separate for now.
Meanwhile, MGM has formed partnerships with GVC and Boyd Gaming that will lead to additional branded sports betting apps and sites in multiple states.
Golden Nugget (and SugarHouse, previously)
The Golden Nugget has a couple significant partnerships in place, but once again, the implementations aren’t fully clear yet. It does have a land-based sportsbook, though, a permanent space that opened just in time for football season.
In May, Churchill Downsannounced partnerships with both the Nugget and SBTech, charting its course into New Jersey. Whether this is a turnkey partnership or just a skin deal (more likely) remains to be seen, and launch is not especially imminent — maybe early next year.
The Nugget also had a deal with Rush Street Gaming, which operates the PlaySugarHouse NJ online casino. On Aug. 23, SugarHouse added sports betting to the platform, making it the third to go online. The SugarHouse Sportsbook is available statewide on web and mobile devices.
Golden Nugget itself operates live and virtual sportsbooks in Las Vegas, so it likely won’t need to hire a new supplier. It should be noted, though, that ties to the Houston Rockets will preclude the Nugget from taking bets on NBA games in New Jersey.
In October, SugarHouse switched partners and aligned with Monmouth Park, likely to get out from under that NBA restriction.
Monmouth Park and William Hill
Monmouth Park began making plans for sports betting way back in 2013, securing a partnership with William Hill. The William Hill mobile sports betting app soft-launched on Sept. 2.
New Jersey Mobile Sports Betting Tips
Years after their initial union, the property opened the state’s first sportsbook and printed the first legal ticket on June 14. The governor was on site to christen the NJ sports gambling industry and bet on the World Cup.
The partnership figures to bode well for Monmouth Park’s endeavors in the digital realm. Based in the UK and with a US arm in place, William Hill is richly equipped with resources, and its US team already operates a Nevada sports betting app. There’s no reason to expect anything different in New Jersey.
Monmouth Park and William Hill launched mobile sports betting last fall.
And SugarHouse
As mentioned above, SugarHouse joined the Monmouth Park family in October as a license partner.
Meadowlands Racetrack and FanDuel Sportsbook
If you could choose a spot to build an NJ sportsbook, you might pick Meadowlands Racetrack.
The property lives in the shadows of MetLife Stadium, home to the New York Giants and Jets. Owning a sportsbook near the border is enviable right now and NJ captures plenty of New York traffic. Expect fandom and geography to drive busloads of visiting traffic this year.
Like its competition in Oceanport, Meadowlands is putting together an ambitious plan for sports betting. It recently entered into a long-term partnership with Betfair US, the domestic arm of Paddy Power Betfair.
In the meantime, PPB acquired daily fantasy sports brand FanDuel to serve as the face of its US products. The FanDuel Sportsbook at the Meadowlands Racetrack opened on July 14.
As with the retail operation, the online/mobile platform is branded as a FanDuel Sportsbook. The product launched on Sept. 1.
PointsBet
Australian company PointsBet arrived in the United States in late 2018 with a different kind of sports betting product. PointsBet partnered with Meadowlands Racetrack to operate under its license as one of its three available skins.
PointsBet does offer traditional sports betting, but makes its name on a product that allows bettors to win or lose big on every wager.
Ocean Resort Casino
Down on the Boardwalk, the new Ocean Resort Casino is the other place you can wager right now.
When Bruce Deifik bought the property in January, he said he wanted it to be the “best in market” for sports gambling. Although the ORC is brand new, it looks like Deifik is working to make good on those plans.
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The physical sportsbook opened for business in the center of the casino floor on June 28, occupying the large footprint of the former nightclub.
Sportsbook operations for ORC are also powered (and branded) by William Hill US. Mobile sports betting is available through Ocean as well.
Hard Rock Atlantic City
A name change and a renovation have turned the old Trump Taj Mahal into the beautiful new Hard Rock AC property just a few strides down the Boardwalk. The hotel launched its retail and mobile sports betting operation in January 2019.
At the grand opening in June, Chairman Jim Allen confirmed Hard Rock would be in the business of sports betting. We also learned that company is subject to some additional restrictions due to its relationship with the NFL and the Miami Dolphins. Hard Rock will not be able to “set the bet” as Allen put it, needing a third party to manage the action.
In July, a new partnership between HRAC and Bet365surfaced in documents filed with the DGE. Bet365 is an enormous outfit based out of England, and Hard Rock will provide its entry point into the US market. You’ll see its mobile app hit the virtual shelves at the appointed time, whenever that time may come.
Hard Rock also struck a partnership with Kindred Group — best known for its Unibet brand. Both deals are pure branding deals, however, so neither provided insight into Hard Rock’s own plans.
In October, Gaming Innovation Group (GiG) announced it signed a letter of intent to power those Hard Rock platforms. The alliance covers both retail sports betting on property as well as online/mobile channels.
Caesars, Bally’s, Harrah’s
Caesars has opened brick-and-mortar sportsbooks at Bally’s and Harrah’s, the former also serving its eponymous casino on the Boardwalk. As it formed a new partnership with Scientific Games, Caesars announced that mobile/online betting would follow “quickly.”
About a month later, it delivered. Caesars added sportsbook functionality to its existing NJ online casino app on Sept. 6, just hours before NFL kickoff.
Under Caesars’ casino license, the mobile 888 Sportsbook went live the following Monday. The 888 iOS app went live on Oct. 20.
Tropicana
Apart from Freehold Raceway, that leaves Tropicana as the only other property we haven’t mentioned.
Eldorado Resorts runs the gaming operations, and it recently entered into a partnership with William Hill for operations. The on-site sportsbook opened in October.