Online Casino Revenue Still Booming in New Jersey, Setting Another Record (Just Barely) In November

After a milestone month of October, when revenue from online casinos in New Jersey topped Atlantic City brick-and-mortar casino revenue for the first time, the nine retail casinos bounced back to gain a slight advantage in November.

According to figures announced by the state’s Division of Gaming Enforcement on Monday, the casino properties took in a combined $223.9 million last month, compared to $214 million for the online casino operators.

But the latter figure hardly was a disappointment, as it represents a 24.7% jump from November 2023 — continuing an upward trend that shows no sign of flattening out. November’s $214 million was also a new record for a single month in the state, by the slimmest of margins, topping October’s $213.6 million by less than one-fifth of 1 percent.

This was the third consecutive month — and third time since the form of gambling was made legal in New Jersey 11 years ago — that online casino revenue topped the $200 million mark. Those robust numbers have helped that industry to a 23.8% rise beyond the matching first 11 months of 2023.

Inside the operator rankings

Golden Nugget — with FanDuel as its leading partner — continues to pace the online casino field, taking in $65.2 million last month compared to $53.9 million for Borgata (led by BetMGM) and $49.1 million for Resorts (a partner of DraftKings and, more recently, ESPN Bet).

Borgata moved up one spot to second compared to the November 2023 rankings, as Resorts and its partners gained a substandard 3.8% compared to a year earlier. Borgata and its digital partners were up almost 41% from a year ago.

After new records of $1.66 billion and $1.92 billion for full-year online casino revenue were set in 2022 and 2023, respectively, the industry already is at a high-water mark of $2.16 billion with the month of December still to go. The 2022 top rankings for revenue were Borgata-Golden Nugget-Resorts, while in 2023 the pecking order was Golden Nugget-Resorts-Borgata — a sequence likely to remain unchanged when final 2024 figures are announced.

So far in 2024, Hard Rock (partnered with bet365) has experienced the biggest boost, up almost 70% compared to 2024.

All of the online casino operators have produced double-digit growth overall this year.

Sports betting numbers also rose in November

The state’s sportsbooks reported $119 million in gross revenue last month, a jump of 24.1% versus November 2023. That boosted the year-to-date sports betting revenue figure slightly over $1 billion. That’s up 15% over the first 11 months of 2023, and a profitable December would set another yearly milestone for the state’s sportsbooks.

The big number on this front was by DraftKings-aided Resorts, which nearly doubled its revenue versus November 2023 to $37.9 million. Market leader Meadowlands Racetrack (partnered with FanDuel, among others), by comparison, was down more than 12% last month to $50.6 million. But the latter for the year is up almost 25% compared to virtually flat results for Resorts/DraftKings.

Hard Rock/bet365 also have seen far greater returns in 2024, up 77.8% on the year.

With $11.1 billion in mobile sports betting handle wagered so far in 2024, that sector of gambling figures to close out 2024 with an average of just over $1 billion per month, assuming a typically robust, football-centric December of betting.

Brick-and-mortar casino numbers were up 4.2% compared to November 2023, with double-digit gains reported by Borgata and Resorts. But for the first 11 months of each year, the casinos are down just over 1% so far in 2024.

Hard Rock once again has has the most improved numbers, up 7.4% for its retail casino figures, compared to a decline of 12.3% for Harrah’s.