Sports betting off to surging start in N.J., big boost to Atlantic City

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. — New Jersey’s red-hot sports betting market blew past the half-billion dollar mark in October, with nearly $600 million worth of bets having been made in just 4½ months.

Figures released Thursday by the state Division of Gaming Enforcement show gamblers wagered $260 million on sports in October, bringing the total to $597 million since mid-June.

Those figures, plus revenue from two newly reopened casinos, helped Atlantic City’s casino industry post an increase of nearly 16 percent in gambling revenue compared with a year ago, at $239 million.

“The numbers continue to be impressive,” said Joe Asher, CEO of bookmaker William Hill US. “It’s important to remember that the New Jersey sports betting industry is just ramping up. We didn’t even have our app in the Apple Store until the end of September, so we are very pleased.”

FanDuel, which runs the sports book at the Meadowlands Racetrack in East Rutherford, just outside New York City, called October “a great month.” Spokesman Kevin Hennessy said the company took in 2½ times as many online bets as it did a month earlier and experienced “continued double-digit growth” in in-person wagering.

Football and baseball, with the playoffs and World Series, accounted for most of October’s bets.

New Jersey won a U.S. Supreme Court case in May clearing the way for all 50 states to offer legal sports betting. Five states are currently doing so.

So far this year, New Jersey’s casinos and racetracks have seen $52 million in revenue from sports bets after paying out winning tickets; some of the money bet is on future events like the Super Bowl in February and is not yet counted as a win or a loss for the casino or track.

Resorts Digital, which partners with DraftKings, has won the lion’s share of that revenue at $16.5 million.