New Jersey Sports Betting Celebrates Three Years In Business

• The New Jersey sports betting industry has officially been opened for three years.
• In that time, the NJ managed to create a national record in handle collected with over $6 billion in 2020.
• The Garden State will see the billion-dollar threshold in sports gaming revenue crossed for their four-year anniversary, having made over $700 million from 2018 through 2020.

TRENTON, N.J. – Friday marks the three-year anniversary of Governor Phil Murphy regulating sports betting in New Jersey. Monday will mark three years since the first wager at a sportsbook was placed in the Garden State.

Retail sports betting was the first to launch while mobile sports wagers were not available until two months after the industry went live.

The first mobile sportsbook in New Jersey was DraftKings, which broke the seal for a number of other sports gaming platforms to open in the state.

A Look At New Jersey Sports Betting Three Years Later

New Jersey was a driving force in overturning PASPA in 2018. With the constant push from the state to have the Supreme Court repeal the law calling it unjust because only a few states were allowed to have regulated sports betting while most others were banned, the Garden State made it all happen. Their persistence not only opened the door for sports wagering in New Jersey but for any other interested state nationwide.

The New Jersey sports betting market is home to ten land-based sportsbooks and 19 online operators including top names like BetMGM, FanDuel, and William Hill. As the industry continued to grow, sports gaming began to partner with professional organizations that call NJ home.

DraftKings is the official operator for the New York Giants and BetMGM is partnered with the New York Jets. The New Jersey Devils have ties with four different sportsbook operators.

Revenue Stats

According to the NJ Division of Gaming Enforcement, the last three years have seen the regulated sports wagering industry of New Jersey grow exponentially.

In 2018, the total handle for the state was $1,247,307,720. This resulted in $94,022,392 in revenue and a tax hold percentage of 7.54% that brought in $11,597,775 in state tax revenue.

In 2019, $4,582,898,150 was taken in wagers creating $299,326,239 in revenue and a 6.53% tax hold equaling $39,594,127 in tax revenue. Based on these figures, with each year, the market grows that much bigger.

By 2020, $6,016,968,399 was collected in handle, which totaled $398,521,093 in revenue and a tax hold of 6.62% that provided the state with $50,891,397 in tax revenue.

NJ set a national record with their handle in 2020, despite sports not being played for half of the year due to COVID-19. The previous record was held by Nevada with $5.4 billion in 2019. The state continues to set new heights and collect more and more sports betting revenue as wagering keeps surging in popularity.

What’s Next For New Jersey?

New Jersey set another national record in December 2020 with the most handle collected for a single month in the United States at $996.3 million.

With legislation in 2021 seeking to get hometown college team wagers on the menu, the yearly reports could crush all other records. Even if legislation doesn’t pass, the Garden State has a lot to celebrate with billions of dollars seen in their handle and $791,869,724 in revenue since launching their sports betting industry in June of 2018.

The market continues to break all glass ceilings set in front of them, making NJ sports gaming the example that each and every state with sports wagering wants to emulate.

News tags: BetMGM | COVID-19 | DraftKings | FanDuel | New Jersey | New Jersey Devils | New York Giants | New York Jets | NJ Division of Gaming Enforcement | PASPA | Phil Murphy | William Hill