New Jersey Online Gambling Revenue Climbs Slightly in August
New Jersey-license online gambling sites posted a modest 4.5% gain in August when compared against July’s revenue numbers, according to online financials posted by the state’s Division of Gaming Enforcement (DGE). Overall, the New Jersey-licensed sites posted a total win in August of just under $10.55 million, up from the $10.07 million won by the sites in July.
The amount garnered as rake by the state’s licensed online poker sites in August was $2.25 million, up from $2.15 million a month earlier, representing virtually no change as a percentage of overall play, at a little over 21% of total revenue.
Six families of sites are included in the monthly results: Borgata (w/ PartyGaming as a software partner), Caesars/WSOP (w/ 888), Tropicana (w/ Virgin), Golden Nugget, Trump Plaza (w/ Betfair), and Trump Taj Mahal (w/ Ultimate Poker).
As in previous months, the Party-powered Borgata online sites, as a group, continue to lead the New Jersey market. The Borgata’s total win for August checked in at $3.48 million, with a healthy $1.17 million of that (or 33.6% of Borgata’s online August revenue), coming from online poker. The Borgata’s share of online poker compared to its counterparts is even more impressive: The $1.17 million in August rake represents about 52% of last month’s online-poker revenue from the state’s regulated sites.
In second place, as it has been virtually from the debut of the market and its online sites, are the Caesars and WSOP.com family of sites. The Caesars/WSOP/888 family of sites performed even better if considering online poker independently, since the sites’ poker offerings generated $1.06 million of rake in August, representing another 47% of the state’s online-poker market. Overall, Caesars online-gambling numbers are somewhat weaker, with the total win for August checking in at $2.71 million, or 25.7% of the state’s online gambling revenue for the month. The strong performance of the Caesars and WSOP poker brands counteracts the fact that in August, the non-poker offerings from the company’s sites accounted for only 19.8% of New Jersey’s “non-poker” online gambling marketplace.
As can be seen from Borgata’s 52% and Caesars/WSOP’s 47% market shares, there’s not much left for anyone else. Only the Ultimate Poker-powered Trump Taj Mahal generated any other revenue, a paltry $23,099 in rake which represents the final 1%. That’s a significant downturn for the Taj’s online-poker offerings, and in conjunction with the casino’s recent filing for bankruptcy protection, suggests that the site will not be around for long.
The same, of course, can be said for the poker site of sister Trump property Trump Plaza (powered by Betfair), which failed to generate even a single dollar of online-poker rake after the very last of its poker players departed for more populous games on other sites. Both the Trump Plaza and Trump Taj Mahal sites held steady as secondary players in online casino games as did Golden Nugget. The Trump Plaza site, in fact, managed a modest percentage gain in August compared to earlier months, though the surge is likely to be short-lived: Betfair has received temporary approval to continue operating the online sites associated with Trump Plaza, but the state appears poised to shutter the operations in the near future, following the shuttering of the brick-and-mortar Trump Plaza casino later this week.
The sixth player in the New Jersey online gambling market, Tropicana, likewise posted improved numbers in August. The Trop AC does not currently have an online-poker component to its offerings, but its other online casino offerings outstripped even the Caesars brands, ranking the company second overall in August online casino games revenue, and a strong third behind Caesars/WSOP when all online gambling numbers were considered.
The Trop’s online New Jersey sites generated a total win of $2.26 million in August, representing 27.2% of the state’s online-casino revenue and 21.4% of the state’s overall online-gambling win for the month.
COMMENTS