New Jersey Sports Betting December Revenues In, Total Hit $1 Billion for 2023

Article ByDavid Weir

January 17, 2024

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Posted in: New Jersey Gambling News, US Gambling News, US Sports Betting News

New Jersey’s sports betting market experienced a phenomenal year in 2023, according to the December data release from the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement.

The data confirms the Garden State’s sportsbooks topped $1 billion in yearly revenue for the first time. It joins the national leading market of New York sports betting as the only states to hit a billion dollars in sports betting revenue in a single year. This marked a significant 31.9% increase on 2022’s revenues.

Overall, bettors in New Jersey wagered a cool $11.97 billion throughout the year. The vast majority of that, $11.44 billion, was bet online, with $527.8 million wagered at New Jersey retail sportsbooks.

December’s $109 million in revenues marked New Jersey operators’ third-highest monthly haul, with $1.28 billion wagered in total.

The leading player in this sector was the Meadowlands and its partners, FanDuel, PointsBet, and SuperBook, who collectively amassed a revenue of $483.6 million.

From all this sports betting activity, the state of New Jersey took 8.5% in tax, accounting for $9.265 million. That also does not include taxed revenue from the New Jersey casinos of Atlantic City.

December’s Results

December 2023 was a particularly strong month for New Jersey sports betting, rounding off a record year in style.

Sportsbooks saw a 24.8% increase in revenue compared to the same month in the previous year, totaling $109.4 million. The sports betting handle for December alone stood at an impressive $1.28 billion, predominantly contributed by online betting.

The Meadowlands Sports Complex and its three sports betting partners – FanDuel, PointsBet (soon to be Fanatics) and SuperBook, were the most popular choices for bettors in December and throughout the year.

While N.J. regulators don’t break down revenues for each partner, it can be safely assumed that national leader FanDuel accounted for the bulk of the three operators’ $483 million revenue.

DraftKings and Resorts World were in second place, with $314 million in December revenues.

The first full month for ESPN Bet will be a bit of a disappointment for owner Penn Entertainment. Between it and BetParx, who will have considerably lower expectations, operators partnered with Freehold Raceway made $3 million in revenue. That’s down 38% from November, showing initial interest in ESPN Bet in New Jersey didn’t sustain itself as well as it has in other states.

Betting Options

Football betting was the most popular market for New Jersey’s players in December, as it usually is during the NFL and college football seasons. Of $399 million in single-event football wagers, the ‘books held on to $29.7 million in winnings.

Parlay bets were the most popular form of wagering, as is increasingly prevalent across the U.S. New Jersey bettors placed $488 million in parlay wagers, of which the house held onto 13%, or roughly $63.4 million.

As for retail sportsbooks, which took about 4.63% of the New Jersey sports betting handle in December, the BetMGM ‘book at the Borgata remained the most popular venue throughout 2023. It made a huge return to fortune across the year – totalling $4.5 million in revenue after making a $3.6 million loss in 2022.