New Jersey, one of the lodestars of American gambling, has released its sports betting numbers for the month of April: while there was some slowdown, much of this is seen as circumstantial, and the overall tally was still an impressive $927m.
Despite what was the first ebbing month of the year – April's $927m was down 17.3% from March’s $1.1m, for instance – there was still impressive year-over-year growth: 23.9% higher than the $749m seen in April 2021.
Altogether, the figures for April 2021 were the lowest seen in the Garden State since August 2021’s $664.7m.
Ultimately, the lower sports betting numbers can be chalked up to the sports calendar. While basketball is going strong, baseball season only began in April and still has the whole summer to gain momentum. The record breaking numbers typical of autumn – when football is back in full force – is still months away.
Indeed, basketball was the top earner, creating $323.4m in wagers (up 83.6% over the year before and over $2bn in the first four months of 2022 alone). Baseball brought in $177.9m over the course of the month.
The relatively strong numbers also indicate that the fallout from the legalization of mobile sports betting in New York was not as deleterious as previously feared. Commentators and analysts had been concerned there would be a syphoning of bettors en masse after the legalization. Thus far, this scenario does not appear to be playing out.
April’s numbers amounted to $50.3m in operator revenue, yielding $7.1m in state and local taxes. Of this, it was New Jersey’s online sportsbooks leading the way by generating 93.1% of April’s handle. FanDuel/PointsBet/SuperBook took first place with $29.2m in gross revenue. DraftKings/Fox Bet was second with $7.4m.
