NJ and Delaware iGaming Revenues Surge in February

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Tuesday, March 22nd, 2016 | Written by Stephen Smith

The USA’s regulated online gambling markets reported hugely impressive results to start off the year, with New Jersey hitting record revenues of $14.6 million in January, and Delaware its second best month to date of $190,829. Both figures were 26% and 36% higher respectively than the same month in 2015. Furthermore, the two states have now taken their momentum forward, and then some, with New Jersey’s iGaming market seeing its revenues soar by a huge 41.8% to $14.75 million in February, and Delaware also reporting a massive 60% rise in revenues to $229,789.

NJ Record iGaming Revenues

New Jersey has reported two consecutive months of record revenues so far in 2016, with February’s tally of $14.75 million significantly higher than the $10.4 million that was generated in the same month in 2015. In February, online casino games accounted for $12.75 million of revenues, while online poker accounted for the remaining $1.99 million. Consequently, online casino games have now improved their share of New Jersey’s iGaming market to 86.5% from 80.3% in February 2015, while iPoker’s share has shrunk to 13.5% from 19.7%.

Online casino games also saw their revenues soar by 52.3% versus February last year, marking six months of continuous growth for the product, while online poker, on the other hand, reported a 2.5% drop in business.

Continuing to dominate New Jersey online gambling industry is the partnership between Borgata/Party Poker, which controlled 28.7% of the market in February, followed by the Golden Nugget/BetFair network with a 21.1% share, and then Tropicana (20.7%), Caesar’s, (20.5%), and Resorts (8.9%).

PokerStars Enters NJ Market

On March 21st, PokerStars finished its soft-testing phase and launched its real-money product in New Jersey. The grand opening was supported via twitter by members of Team PokerStars Pros from around the world, including the likes of Chris Moneymaker, Jason Somerville, Jason Mercier, and Vanessa Selbst.

Almost two days later, and PokerStars is currently showing 120 cash game players over a 7-day period, placing it behind Caesars/WSOP/888 (170), but ahead of Party Borgata (110). Prior to its launch, Caesars had an average of 190 players and the Borgata had a 130 players over a 7-day period, so it remains to be seen whether PokerStars will manage to grow New Jersey’s iPoker market, or whether it will instead poach customers from its two online poker rivals.

NJ Land Casinos Up 14.7%

Atlantic City’s eight land-based casinos generated $190 million in February, up 13% compared to the same month in 2015. After online gambling revenues are added, that total rises to $204.7 million, or 14.7% higher year-on year. As Matt Levinson, chairman of the Casino Control Commission chairman, explains:

“Six of the eight casinos were up for the month, five of them [by] double digits.. It’s always positive to see casino revenues going up, and there were a lot of factors that combined to make February a good month. Compared to last year, the weather was great and with Leap Year, last month had one extra day.”

Breaking the figures down further, the Borgata posted revenues of $62.8 million in February, representing a 29.3% improvement compared to January, followed by Tropicana (+14%); Golden Nugget (+17.5%); Bally’s (+19.3%); Harrah’s (+7%); and Resorts (+16%). On the flip side, Caesars Atlantic City saw its revenues shrink by 8%, and the Trump Taj Mahal was also down by a slight 0.16%.

Delaware Enjoys 2nd Highest Month

While New Jersey has enjoyed two consecutive record breaking months, for Delaware both January and February have produced the state’s second biggest hauls to date. Delaware’s biggest ever month generated $240,762 of revenues in April 2014, compared to January 2016’s tally of $190,829, and now February’s total of $229,789.

Accounting for $201,495 of that amount was the casino and video lottery products offered by Delaware’s three online operators. Last month, video lottery games collected $103,596 in revenues, lower by 25% from the $138,391 taken in January, while online casino games saw its revenues spike 275% to $97,899, compared to the $26,089 generated the previous month.

Online poker, too, noted a 7.4% improvement in revenues to $28,294 versus January, although year-on-year business was down by 18% from last February’s total of $34,526. When Delaware and Nevada enacted their poker player sharing agreement in March last year, they had hoped that their combined populations would give the vertical a much needed boost. One year later, and the impact has been minimal, with traffic currently just 150 players across their shared network, and a 1 day peak of 282 cash game players.