NJ’s September iGaming Revenue: The Good and the Bad
On Wednesday the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement (NJ DGE) released the state’s iGaming revenue numbers for September. The report shows a slight month-over-month drop, but overall generally consistent market-wide revenue at $10.25 million – August revenue was $10.55 million.
The numbers
Here is a look at the September iGaming revenue numbers released by the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement:
| Borgata | Caesars | Golden Nugget | Tropicana | Trump Plaza | Trump Taj | |
| Online Poker | $1,163,844 | $914,549 | $1 | $6,901 | ||
| Online Casino | $2,292,902 | $1,749,419 | $1,087,043 | $2,044,026 | $767,869 | $221,816 |
| Total iGaming | $3,456,746 | $2,663,968 | $1,087,043 | $2,044,026 | $767,870 | $228,717 |
| YTD iGaming Win | $34M | $26.6M | $6.1M | $16.1M | $5.8M | $5.1M |
Borgata keeps Caesars at bay for online poker supremacy
Caesars has made up a lot of ground on Borgata when it comes to cash-game liquidity since the early months of New Jersey’s online poker industry, when Borgata was the clear, unchallenged #1. Currently Borgata’s lead is much slimmer, bettering Caesars by a margin of 140 average cash game players to WSOP.com‘s 110 according to pokerscout.com‘s data, with the two sites neck-and-neck at different points in the past couple months.
Even though the liquidity gap has closed to some degree, Borgata managed to widen its lead over Caesars in terms of online poker revenue in September.
Borgata’s online poker revenue was nearly identical to its revenue in August ($1.167 August million to $1.163 million in September) while Caesars online poker revenue took a significant hit from August to September, dropping from $1.060 million to $914k.
Borgata still “Top-Top” in casino and poker
In addition to keeping Caesars at bay for the top spot in terms of online poker revenue, Borgata also held off another challenger, the Tropicana. Tropicana has emerged as a serious challenger for the distinction of being the monthly online casino revenue leader, but once again, Borgata emerged in the top spot.
Tropicana appeared to be poised to overtake Borgata in August, when the Tropicana’s revenue grew to over $2.2 million (Borgata came in at $2.3 million in August) but once again the Borgata held steady while their rival took a step back.
In September the Borgata tallied $2.3 million in online casino revenue, while Tropicana managed only $2 million – a near 10% month-over-month drop for Tropicana.
Tropicana overtakes Caesars YTD
Tropicana did manage to overtake Caesars in terms of YTD online casino revenue, after outperforming Caesars’ online casino sites for the sixth consecutive month.
How has Tropicana managed to pull this off?
One possibility is the sites’ (TropicanaCasino.com and VirginCasino.com) decision to only collect the final four digits of a prospective player’s Social Security Number – all other New Jersey online gaming sites require players to divulge their full Social Security Number.
Golden Nugget tops $1 million
Golden Nugget got a late start in New Jersey, launching some three weeks after everyone else, but the site has been one of the top gainers in recent months. After flirting with a million-dollar-month in July ($944k in revenue), Golden Nugget took a serious step back in August , tallying only $787k for the month, and leaving many wondering if their period of growth was coming to an end.
That question was answered when Golden Nugget bounced back in September, putting together their best month on record with just over $1 million in online casino revenue.
Ultimate Gaming withdrawal yet to be felt
Ultimate Gaming pulled out of the New Jersey in late September, which means the fallout from company’s departure cannot be gleaned from September’s revenue reports.
Who is likely to benefit from Ultimate Gaming’s exit? I put forth a few theories here: Who will benefit the most from Ultimate Gaming’s exit?
