Handle was slightly off from August 2020, when sportsbooks reported $668m in wagers. $613m of sports wagers were placed online.
Through the first eight months of the year, New Jersey sportsbooks have generated $6.1bn in handle, topping 2020 handle of $6.0bn.
Baseball accounted for $248m, or 37.3%, of August handle, up significantly from $195m in July. The return of NFL preseason games and the first weekend of college football drove football bets to $27.4m.
"With only a few college and NFL preseason games, August still showed the outsized effect football has on the sports-betting industry," said Valerie Cross, analyst for PlayNJ. "Even if September falls short of $1 billion in wagering, we will likely get there before the end of the year."
Gross gaming revenue for the month was $52m, a 31.7% increase y-o-y but a 5.4% decrease from July.
Meadowlands/FanDuel/PointsBet/SuperBook topped the online market with $23.6m in GGR, while Meadowlands/FanDuel led retail sportsbooks in revenue with $3.2m.
"Operators are pouring millions into promotional offerings and advertising around football to help gain greater market share,” Cross said. “But FanDuel has proven to be the single most dominant force among New Jersey sportsbooks, and that is unlikely to change this fall."
Online casinos and poker kept churning in August, generating $113.2m in GGR for a 29% increase y-o-y. August revenue was just shy of the record set in July of $119m.
Online casino games were responsible for $110m of the month’s GGR.
