New Jersey Sports Books Leap 135 Percent In August As Online Sports Betting Hits The Market

"We could see sports betting grow by more than 300 percent in September as NFL and college football ramp up and the number of options for online sports wagering in New Jersey continues to grow," said Dustin Gouker, lead sports betting analyst for PlayNJ.com.

New Jersey's sportsbooks generated $9.1 million in gross revenue on $95.6 million in wagers, or handle, in August, according official reporting released Wednesday.

"Once mature, we expect New Jersey to be a much larger market than Nevada," Gouker said. "We do not believe that it will take long before New Jersey is the largest legal sports betting market in the U.S. It could be within the coming year."

DraftKings Sportsbook became New Jersey's first online sports betting site on Aug. 6 and generated $2.97 million in gross revenue. DraftKings was followed on Aug. 22 by playMGM, generating $49,626 in gross revenue, and on Aug. 23 by SugarHouse sportsbook, generating $103,324 in gross revenue.

"We saw a race to the online market ahead of the NFL season, and the strong August handle shows why," Gouker said. "Online sports betting will be an important vehicle for the industry."

FanDuel Sportsbook at The Meadowlands led retail sportsbooks with $3.1 million in August gross revenue.

For the month, online sportsbooks generated a handle of $21.7 million in August, compared with $73.9 million at land-based sportsbooks.

In August, the state's online casinos generated $24.8 million in gross revenue, down 4.2 percent from the record $25.9 million in July. August's total was up 16.6 percent from August 2017.

"Even with just a handful of operators, online sports betting added to the momentum that legal online gambling has maintained in New Jersey," said Steve Ruddock, lead online gambling analyst for PlayNJ.com.