Introduction: Off to a flyer
Mobile has completely
changed the model. Sport
is getting consumed in real
time. It means there are
opportunities for online
betting operators.
Jason Robins, DraftKings
As this report shows, despite the
relative recency of the advent of
regulated sports betting within the
state, there is already enough data to
draw conclusions about likely growth
rates across both product sets.
Indeed, both the politicians
and the regulators (both previous
and current) have been quick to
congratulate themselves on a job
well done and no one doing the
conference circuit will be unaware
of the smiles from those involved
whenever the discussion turns to the
success of the launch to date.
No wonder industry participants
say they are, in the words of Max
Meltzer, chief commercial officer at
Kambi, “very encouraged” by the
progress to date.
“The market as a whole is
probably either meeting or slightly
ahead of expectations, depending
on who you ask, while some people
are already talking about ‘when’
rather than ‘if’ New Jersey overtakes
Las Vegas as the highest grossing
sports betting market,” he adds.
For reference, the Nevada sports
betting market was worth circa
$300m in 2018 and the forecasts from
H2 Gambling Capital featured later in
this report suggest new Jersey might
be approaching that figure by 2023.
The lessons from New Jersey
are already being promoted by
those looking at further US sports
betting state openings in the months
and years to come. One is the
importance of mobile.
Speaking recently at ICE in
London, Jason Robins, the founder
and chief executive at New Jersey
market leader DraftKings, said:
“Mobile has completely changed
everything, not just sports.
“It has completely changed the
model. Sport is getting consumed
in real time. It means there are
opportunities for online betting
operators. We view our market as
sports fans. And the goal is to create
products that will reach as many of
those 150 million in the US and 1.5
billion globally.”
Richard Schwartz, president
at Rush Street Interactive, agrees
with this prognosis. “We think
mobile first,” he says. “This is why
our mobile experience is a fully
functional version of what you see
on desktop. While both desktop and
mobile options are available in New
Jersey, we expect mobile to grow
and continue to dominate in terms
of usage very soon.”
New Jersey is just the start of that
push. On its own, it is quite small
but as a leading indicator it will have
immense value, particularly when
promoting the vision of online US
markets with the full product suite
available. As Richard Carter, chief
executive at SBTech says, “we can
see the benefit of sports betting on
New Jersey online casino already,
with an acceleration in year-on-
year growth, which reached 45% in
December and 58% in January.”
There are caveats to the hope that
New Jersey will come to be viewed
as the model to follow. As Williams
says: “Most other states are not set
up the way New Jersey is and other
states are maybe more likely to be
land-based.”
But, he adds, “people are looking
at New Jersey and what it does and
seeing if it works”.
New Jersey: data and lessons from the first five years of the US’ leading digital market
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