Just call New Jersey “Vegas East.”
On Monday, the Garden State announced that December’s sports betting handle was $557.8 million. That means, in 2019, bettors wagered $4.5 billion in the state.
A remarkable 84% of those dollars were bet on mobile devices.
The year was capped off by three months where the state beat out the handle of the incumbent, Nevada. In the first four months of the football season, $2.05 billion was bet, including a state high in November of $562.7 million.
This comes on the heels of the $1 billion-plus that was wagered from June to December of 2018, the first seven months of legalized betting in the state.
New Jersey should undoubtedly give some thanks for its massive 2019 to its neighbors in New York, which failed to implement mobile sports betting this year.
Data from previous years suggests that Nevada, when it reports December numbers in two weeks, will conclude the year with around $5.3 billion in total sports bets. That would make New Jersey’s 2019 85% of what Nevada’s projected number.
Operators made $300 million this year in sports betting revenue within the state, more than 75% of that money was earned by the top two players, FanDuel and DraftKings.
In June of 2018, New Jersey’s first month offering legal sports betting, it received $16.4 million in sports bets. Last month, that number finished at $557.8 million, falling just shy of the record, $562.2 million, set one month prior.
With football season the main driver of sports betting interest, New Jersey’s four biggest months since offering legalized wagering came from September through December of last year.
The state brought in more than $100 million in taxes via sports betting in 2019.
