While many might have questioned the logic of having it, the 2020 online WSOP has had at least one good outcome. Revenues for the month of July in the state of New Jersey set records, in part driven by the month-long series of tournaments. With this said, the percentage of online poker in the overall New Jersey revenues still was miniscule compared to its casino and sports betting operations.
Second Largest Month on Record for Jersey Online Poker
For online poker in New Jersey, it was the second largest month in the seven-year history of the industry. For the month, $4.8 million in revenues were drawn in, topped only by the COVID-driven pandemic month of April 2020 ($5.1 million). Most impressive, however, were the records set by WSOP.com, one of the operations in the New Jersey industry.
WSOP.com, driven by the first 31 bracelet tournaments of the 2020 online WSOP (only nine events were held in 2019), saw revenues of $2.8 million for the month of July. This topped the previous record for all the operators in New Jersey, which was on the PokerStars NJ outlet in April 2020 with $2.1 million. Prior to 2020, the best month in the history of New Jersey’s online poker operations was $1.8 million – dating back to the beginning of their industry in 2014 and the Borgata/partypoker partnership.
The other operators in New Jersey weren’t left out of the windfall, however. Both Borgata/partypoker and PokerStars NJ were able to earn respectable revenues overall. PokerStars NJ did better than its counterpart at the Borgata, with PokerStars NJ taking down $1.1 million to make it their best month since entering the New Jersey scene in 2016 and Borgata/partypoker earning $846,000. That might not sound like much, but it was the best July for partypoker in five years.
New Jersey Sets Yearly Revenue Records
The COVID-19 outbreak, resulting pandemic and months long quarantines has done wonders for the bottom line of New Jersey online gaming. For the month of July, a new record was set with $114.4 million in revenues for the state’s online gaming industry, which counted more than $16.5 million in taxation revenues for the state. If there was some bad news, poker wasn’t the driving factor for this success.
Overall, casino gaming led the way by drawing in $82.7 million in revenues, almost three-quarters of the entirety of the Garden State’s operation. Sports betting has become significant in the state and, with the return of sports to the COVID-ravaged landscape, the sports bettors have returned also. With just the internet wagering, sports betting took in $26.9 million in revenues, roughly a quarter of all revenues. For its part, poker’s $4.8 million was a measly 4% of the total revenues.
For the year, New Jersey has bested 2019’s record revenues. In 2019, online gaming for the Garden State’s operators nearly hit the $500 million mark at $482.7 million. With the month of July, the state of New Jersey has earned $536.7 million in revenues, and that’s not counting the addition of sports betting to the state.
Is it sustainable? If the current lack of enthusiasm for being in public settings continues, online gaming will probably continue to be exceedingly popular. But to expect New Jersey to repeat the numbers that they did in July, especially without the benefit of a major poker organization moving its entire operations online, would be ludicrous. Still, New Jersey’s online gaming operations continue to demonstrate that the people of the States of America have an appetite for online gaming, one which other states might look at and wonder how to tap into.