New Jersey Online Gambling Brief: A Week Of Intense Ups And Downs
A week of ups and downs is the best to characterize the past seven days for the New Jersey online gambling industry. There is perhaps no better example of this roller coaster ride than the week the Borgata and their iGaming partner partypoker had; a perfect microcosm for the industry.
The week started off with the partypoker cancelling their flagship Sunday tournament with just two tables remaining after “technical difficulties,” but then ended on a high note with the announcement of a 15-event tournament series with some $600k in guaranteed prize-money up for grabs, and sprinkled in between were the NJ DGE’s revenue figures that showed Borgata / Party had a strong increase in online casino revenue but at the same time suffered a significant drop in online poker revenue.
Now that’s about as up and down a week as you’re likely to see!
In this installment of the New Jersey Online Gambling Brief we’ll detail the topsy turvy week partypoker had, as well as the other ups and downs the online gambling industry in New Jersey experienced over the past seven days.
888 offering WSOP online qualifiers
In a bit of a surprising development, 888 has announced it will be offering Steps tournament to the World Series of Poker Main Event.
What is remarkable about this announcement is that WSOP.com had announced earlier this year that it would be the exclusive home for direct buy-in satellites to the World Series of Poker, but, and this is a big but, the news isn’t all that surprising.
Even though they operate independently and on separate networks, 888 is partnered with Caesars for both the WSOP.com website, as well as the US.888Poker.com website.
Here is a look at the details for the WSOP Steps Tournaments promotion at 888.
NJ’s International iGaming bill not getting much love
Whereas Senator Raymond Lesniak’s bill that legalized online gambling in New Jersey had widespread support both statewide and in the legislator, he is finding his plans of turning New Jersey into a hub of international online gambling a bit tougher to sell to his fellow legislators and his constituents.
This is the second year in a row Lesniak has introduced the bill and not only does it not appear likely to gain any traction in the legislature, but it is also getting some pushback from the local press, as this article in the PressofAtlanticCity.com demonstrates.
Borgata Party release NJCOP schedule
The partnership of the Borgata and Party Poker will pretty much have every base of the poker world covered from April 19th through the 27th as the Borgata hosts the World Poker Tour’s season ending Championship (for the first time in the tour’s history) while at the very same time BorgataPoker.com and NJ.PartyPoker.com will host the online equivalent, dubbed the New Jersey Championships of Online Poker, or NJCOP for short.
The 15 tournament series will feature a total of $600k in guaranteed prize-money and includes a $50k freeroll (Event #1), a $500 buy-in High-Roller tournament (Event #14), and a $200 buy-in Main Event (Event #15) with a $200k guarantee.
You can check out the full schedule and get more perspective on the tournament series at NJPokerOnline.com.
Casino revenue up; poker revenue down in February
February’s revenue numbers revealed by the New Jersey DGE on Wednesday were a mixed bag for New Jersey’s online gambling operators.
On the one hand online casino was up considerably over January’s tallies (some 20%) despite the shortened month. But on the opposite of the coin, online poker revenue was down nearly 10%—a number that is virtually a wash if we consider daily take during the shortened month of February.
Here is where you can find my complete breakdown of the winners and losers from February’s revenue reports.
New Jersey traffic numbers
Online poker numbers are sliding in New Jersey according to www.pokerscout.com’s tracking data.
Party / Borgata is down to just 200 average cash-game players, a marked decrease considering they have been between 220 and 240 players over the past month or so and had a high water mark of 260 players.
WSOP.com has seen a similar drop, as the site is now down to 150 average cash-game players after being as high as 200.
888 and the All American Poker Network managed to hold steady at 120 players, and Ultimate Poker continues to bring up the rear with average cash game traffic measured in the teens.
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$50k Guaranteed experiences technical difficulties
This past Sunday partypoker had to cancel its $50k Guaranteed tournament in New Jersey with just 12 players remaining due to technical difficulties, according to the official NJ partypoker blog:
“We experienced brief technical issues on 03/08/2013 and 03/09/2013 as players on a few tournaments were disconnected and could not resume the tournaments because their log-in credentials were not accepted.
“The issue has been resolved, all the tournaments affected were cancelled and eligible players were refunded in accordance with our cancellation policy. We apologize for the inconvenience. Questions about refunds can be clarified by contacting Customer Care.”
