New Jersey’s iGaming market held on to earlier gains in April, keeping revenue steady despite the changing of seasons. Typically, sports betting revenue plunges after March Madness, but the summer slump can take longer to set in for the online casino vertical, and that seems to be the case this year so far.
All told, New Jersey online casinos pulled in $235.2 million in gross gaming revenue for April. Although that’s a drop of nearly $9 million from March, it was also a shorter month. Adjusted for the number of days of operation, the month-over-month change was a decline of only 0.4%.
No news is good news for the New Jersey iGaming market, which has been on a hot streak for the past year. The annual growth rate had dipped into the teens in 2023 but has mostly been in the mid-20s since last summer. At 25.2% for April, it continues to avoid any sign of a correction.
That’s actually the highest annual growth rate so far this year, and may reflect Americans’ improved economic outlook. Last year’s sudden acceleration in gambling industry growth was likely due to improvements in the underlying economy. That began to slow in the first months of Donald Trump’s presidency, perhaps due to stock market volatility. However, as the market has recovered, so too has the online casino revenue growth rate.
Pre-WSOP lull for poker
Although online casino revenue held steady, New Jersey online poker took a dip. WSOP got the worst of it, with a 9.3% drop in daily average revenue, but PokerStars also saw a 6.3% decrease. Only BetMGM Poker emerged relatively unscathed.
All told, online poker sites made $2.37 million in April, down 4.7% from $2.57 million in March.
That decline is not so much a slowdown as the calm before the storm, however. The World Series of Poker is set to kick off in Las Vegas at the end of May. That means online qualifiers at WSOP.com and, more importantly, online bracelet events. Those are big-ticket tournaments, and it’s normal for online poker sites (and especially WSOP) to see a drop in activity before and after as recreational players manage their budgets accordingly.
This year should be the biggest ever for WSOP’s online events because Pennsylvania is now in the player pool, having begun networking late last month.
FanDuel picks up a point
Along with the stability of the overall market, there also wasn’t a ton of movement in the market share race. That said, FanDuel Casino is once again starting to chip away against its rivals.
It was one of the only brands to see a month-over-month increase, despite the seasonality and abbreviated month. Its revenue rose to $52.9 million from $52.3 million, equating to a jump of 4.5% in the daily average.
As a result of having gained while the competition lost, it boosted its share of the New Jersey market by a full percentage point, from 21.4% to nearly 22.5%.
That increase came directly at the expense of its closest competitors. Golden Nugget dropped by a full point between them. That means smaller brands also picked up close to a percentage point between themselves.
