New Jersey sports betting racks up $385 million January handle

New Jersey’s newly minted sportsbooks racked up a record $385 million worth of wagers during the month of January. That staggering figure is more than enough to declare the Garden State’s nearly decade-long effort to legalize sports betting in America as an unqualified success.
According to numbers released by the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement (DGE), the state’s sportsbooks were incredibly busy during January, but there were still plenty of good seats available at retail sports betting outlets. That’s because a whopping $305 million of that figure was wagered online. That’s nearly 80 percent of the entire handle for the month and a 25 percent increase over December 2018.
Wagering at retail outlets clocked in with about $80.3 million in bets placed. That’s only about $2 million more than it saw in December, according to CalvinAyre.com.
January’s bang up numbers are all the more impressive when one considers the fact that there are no regular season football games being played. That $385 million number reflects wagers that were largely placed on NFL playoff games and college bowl games. These numbers also cover early Super Bowl wagering, but not the game itself, which will be reflected in the February numbers.
As is often the case with sports betting, however, revenue for the month was actually down a bit. According the DGE, revenue came in at about $18.8 million, which is down nearly $2 million from December 2018 (which included a full slate of regular season NFL games, and some college bowl games).
All told, January’s big numbers suggest that sports betting is definitely driving revenue to NJ casinos, though it doesn’t appear to be sparking the long-hoped for Atlantic City revival that it was originally intended to be.