September ushered in another season of NFL and college football that sparked a betting frenzy in the Garden State. This prompted New Jersey’s sports betting industry to its second-highest revenue-producing month in history and its third-highest handle.
September to Remember
New Jersey sportsbooks generated a whopping $1.3 billion handle and revenues of $111.1 million, the second highest in state history, on an 8.6% hold, or win rate, in September. The state collected $14.2 million from the sportsbooks in September alone. Had the hold been a bit higher, the revenue record of $114.8 million set in November 2021 would have likely been broken.
Parlays have been a cash cow for sportsbooks all over the nation and New Jersey is no exception. In September, parlays comprised over 60% of the total revenue or $68.2 million on a hold of 22.2%, marking the sixth consecutive month the win rate was over 20% in the Garden State.
The retail sportsbooks enjoyed an impressive 14.3% hold in September but generated only $6.2 million compared to the $106 million in revenue derived from the mobile sportsbooks on their 8.5% hold.
There is little doubt that the return of NFL and college football was the spark that lit the fuse as the handle was 79% higher than the previous month but almost 50% higher than last September. It was the 12th time in the state’s sports betting history that the monthly handle surpassed $1 billion and became the first state in the post-PASPA era to eclipse $3 billion in revenue.
NJ’s Sports Betting Triumph
Let’s not forget that New Jersey was the state that launched a federal case seeking to overturn the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992 and was eventually successful. Once the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the archaic law was unconstitutional, New Jersey immediately launched mobile sports betting, becoming one of the very first states to do so in 2018.
This has been a prosperous year for the New Jersey sportsbooks as revenue is over 37% ahead of where it was at this time last year, currently at $709 million with the state taking its fair share of nearly $91 million this year, over $24 million ahead of what it collected over the first nine months of 2022.
Better Bargains in New Jersey
When New Jersey’s larger neighbor to the north decided to launch sports betting, it allowed New Yorkers to stay home to make a bet instead of crossing state lines to Geo-comply with their mobile apps’ demands. Naturally, that took a bite out of New Jersey’s business but some of those customers may be returning.
New York is the largest sports betting market in the nation with New Jersey trailing a distant second. For instance, New Jersey sportsbooks handled $1.3 billion in September while New York led the pack with nearly $1.8 billion in accepted sports wagers. But the resurgence New Jersey has seen in the first month of football is startling and it could have something to do with the lack of incentives from the New York books.
You see, New York taxes its sportsbooks at 51%, tied for the highest in the nation. And because of that the sportsbooks operating in the Empire State have a much stingier budget for promos and signup bonuses. The exorbitant tax rate has become a bone of contention for the sportsbook operators but the market is so vast that it is a cross they must endure.
New Jersey, on the other hand, taxes its sportsbooks at 14.25% which allows them to offer more frequent and enticing bonuses. The odds can also be more favorable as well making it a friendlier market for sports bettors and, for some, worth a trip across the bridge. Whether this is a harbinger of things to come remains to be seen but in the meantime, New Jersey has kicked off the football season in spectacular fashion.
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