The finals of the NBA league were held in the month of July; and so were the Tokyo Olympics. One would expect that these two high caliber events would turn around the low performance recorded for the month in New Jersey. While the pressure on NJ has been based on past performance, the general trend countrywide has been slow for sports betting.
Although it has been more than a year before the Covid-19 pandemic impacts interactive sports and related activities, the past few weeks have seen a rise in the number of new infections. In fact, the latest virus mutant has been reported to be more vigorous and deadly. This explains why most people would rather bet online than risk contracting the virus from a betting retail outlet.
Even for people who brave the times to leave their houses for a moment in the stadiums, the rate of dealing with actual currency has been greatly diminished by the risk of contracting the disease. This is why despite the low sports betting performance overall, the state of New Jersey still managed to set a new record in online casino betting.
According to reports published by PlayNJ, the state of NJ is in the limelight of an impressive performance yet again; July online gambling performance sets a new record. It is important to note that part of this performance can be traced back to business in Atlantic City.
The performance of the retail and online sports collectively recorded $578.7m in bets collected in July which was a drop from the $766.9m collected in June. 2021 performance for the month of July 2021 was 83.7% more profitable than the same month in 2020. While the improvement can be linked to the NBA and baseball seasons, the role of Covid-19 can still not be underestimated.
Before July numbers were reported, the lowest monthly performance had been February with a handle of $743m. This performance jogs the memory back to 2019 when the performance for the month of July was $251.4m, the lowest in the entire year.
Offering some insight into the records posted for 2021, the lead data analysis at PlayNJ.com, David Danzis, explained that there has been a traditionally high level of tourist activity in AC in the summer. Being a destination that has lots of outdoor activities to do in the summer, Atlantic City boosts both local and foreign tourism. July is however high when it comes to matters of travel and it is anticipated that online betting would be lowest at this time.
Danzis chooses to view the trio of retail casino outlets, online casino gaming and sports betting from the perspective of a three-legged-stool. These gambling sub sectors have continually been working together for the NJ market such that the performance outshines most US markets every time.
With a hold of 7.8%, the sportsbooks of New Jersey were considerably high in July and yielded gross gaming revenue of $55m. The previous month revenue of $71.3m translated into a hold percentage of 22.9%, an evident drop. It is the 86% hold improvement from July 2020 that analysts are now trying to figure out.
The state government of NJ is one of the greatest beneficiaries of this performance. From sports betting alone, the local and state taxes added up to $8.3m for the month of July.
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Where did the bets come from?
Baseball topped the list of great sports performers in July having managed to raise wagering revenue of $195.4m for the month. This was a gain from the performance of the previous month which was $169.3m. The second position was taken by basketball with revenue of $74.8m because of the NBA finals which had taken place in July.
For basketball, this was a drop because the previous month had recorded $190.9m in revenue. Other sports types, the ones that would normally appear in Olympic champions also suffered drop from $234.8m to $180.4m.
With reference to the Olympics, the global sporting tournament did not lead to any significant increase in the revenues collected. This could be attributed to the fact that the Olympics are watched simultaneously in different parts of the world which are differentiated by time zones. Even though the event did not cause any significant revenue increase, the existence of sportsbooks created an opportunity for betting operators to reach out to a new customer base.
The biggest win for casino operators was in the virtual betting segment. Especially for brands that have multiple betting platforms, the revenue difference between online sources and others was quite wide. It has been reported that 91.5% of all the revenue collected from wagers in the month of July was sourced from online operators.
FanDuel sportsbook has had a successful period and this time was no different; the operator topped the competition with revenue totaling $29.5m which was a decline from May performance of $38.1m. Retail sportsbook, although trailing, appeared to be improving with a July wagers tally of $49.3m down 41% from the performance in June.
According to Danzis, most casinos report a spike in their online operations in summer because most casual bettors are active then. In the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, a lot of activities were redirected to indoor spaces, workers were forced to stick to their work routines while at home and the world generally experienced an uptake of the internet.
One of the biggest gainers of the pandemic was sportsbooks that benefitted from bored individuals spending extended periods of time in close quarters. Sports tournaments that are broadcasted live have been an attraction to many casual bettors because some find that engaging their minds to watch them is calming in otherwise stressful conditions.
Final Thoughts
Since the idea of online gambling debuted in 2013, the casino industry has generated total revenue of $3bn. Even though the industry has faced some challenges along the way, there has been consistent and progressive growth. The hardest period was in 2020 when the pandemic was at its peak – 2021 is here and the poker and online casino games segments have accumulated $752.9m in 7 months.
