When regulated sports betting was pitched to New Jersey voters way back in 2007, the premise was that both Atlantic City casinos, and struggling Garden State horse race tracks would benefit from the new revenue. Now that sports betting is up and running in both places, the New Jersey Meadowlands race track is finding out that sports betting does not necessarily offer an instant torrent of revenue.
According to a report from the Associated Press, the first nine days of legal sports betting brought in just $3.5 million in wagers. The first weekend brought in at least a million dollars worth of wagers, which was the target goal, but the second weekend of operation brought in a mere $650,000 worth of them.
While no one at the Meadowlands was heading for the life boats just yet (after all, New Jersey is definitely NFL country) but Meadowlands operator Jeff Gural expressed his disappointment saying:
We did OK. Our goal the first weekend was to exceed $1 million, which we did. The next four days were quiet with nothing to bet on due to the All-Star break.
One possible reason for the slow performance of the Meadowlands’ sports book, which is branded and operated by daily fantasy sports operator FanDuel, is that the facility isn’t working at full capacity just yet. The AP reports that only 10 betting windows have been open thus far. Gural also suggests that the All-Star break for Major League Baseball could have impacted receipts as well.