New Jersey online gambling market grows
News on 13 Mar 2014
News on 13 Mar 2014
The New Jersey online gambling market grew 9 percent in February, albeit at a slower rate than the preceding month, and with a 10 percent drop in poker revenues, the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement announced Wednesday.
The market is now in its third month of operation, with a quarter of a million online gambler registrations reported by the operators. Caesars Entertainment-888 (47 percent) and Bwin-Borgata (50 percent) continue to dominate in the new sector.
The Borgata-Bwin partnership won just over $4 million online in February, while Caesars Interactive won $3.3 million.
The Tropicana, with its self-titled and Virgin Casino brands, won $1.3 million online, whilst the Taj Mahal, with its Ultimate Casino brand, won $587,323; Trump Plaza and its Betfair online affiliate won $493,590, and the Golden Nugget won $460,121 online.
The Republic newspaper reports that the 16 Atlantic City online gambling sites posted a 28 percent gain in revenues in January 2014, to $9.5 million. In February 2014, the online sites won $10.3 million.
Brian Mattingly, CEO of 888 Holdings, said he was pleased with the continued growth thus far.
“We are delighted with the way it has started,” he said. “All of us got into a good rhythm and started some good marketing. Overall, I’m delighted with where we’re at.”
Including their online gambling operations, Atlantic City’s 11 land casinos overall gambling win continues to decline, down 1.4 percent y-o-y to $209.4 million in February. Online gambling activity helped to contain the decline at that level.
Keith Smith, CEO of Boyd Gaming, said: “We were particularly encouraged by the performance of Borgata’s online casino site, which achieved month-over-month revenue growth of 36 percent, and more than 50 percent on a per-day basis. Looking ahead, we continue to see significant opportunities for future growth in New Jersey as we refine and enhance our online product.”
So far for the year 2014, Atlantic City’s casinos have won $385 million at land-based games, down 7.7 percent from the same period a year ago. Their online operations have won $19.7 million in the first two months of the year.
