No Stopping New Jersey: November's Sports Betting Handle Sets Another Record

Those expecting a sports betting slowdown in the state of New Jersey will have to wait at least one more month to see their predictions come to fruition. On Monday, the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement (DGE) released some more eye-popping numbers from sports betting in the state, this time for the month of November.

New Jersey has been on a stratospheric path toward a $1 billion monthly haul. While not quite at that level yet, the Empire State was able to set a new high-water mark with regards to the state monthly handles in the US during November. Despite COVID-19 still hanging around and affecting the Atlantic City side of the industry, New Jersey's overall sports betting scene continues to exceed expectations and maintains its status as the "Golden Child" of the US legal betting industry.

The Numbers

For the fourth straight month, the state of New Jersey set a monthly sports betting handle record. Sportsbooks in New Jersey took $931.6 million in bets in November, an impressive spike from the $803 million the state saw in October. November’s handle represents a $128.5 million or 16% increase from October, a 24.4% rise from September‘s $748.6 million and an impressive 39.4% from August‘s $668 million.

Year-over-year, New Jersey's sportsbooks have also shown dramatic increases. November, 2019 generated a $562.67 million handle, which is 65.6% less than they did in November, 2020.

Online betting continued to lead the way, not surprising considering the effects of COVID tourism slowdowns for locations in Atlantic City. Betting apps were responsible for $872 million of the $931,620,415 handle which represents a record-93.6% of the overall haul. In October, New Jersey reported a then-record $743.9 million in mobile betting and one year ago, New Jersey's betting apps were responsible for $486.8 million which is 79.2% less than November, 2020.

Revenues Don't Quite Meet the Handle

Despite hitting new heights with regard to the amount of betting dollars taken in for New Jersey, revenues didn't quite meet the handle. In fact, revenues for New Jersey were the third-best since the Supreme Court overturned its blanket ban on legal sports betting in 2018.

Revenues came in at $50.6 million or a hold of 5.4%. That represents a 13.6% drop from October's record-$58.5 million and the $53.6 million from January, 2020. Year-over-year, revenues were up 65.6% from November, 2019 when New Jersey sportsbooks made $32.9 million.

About $6.2 million in taxes were generated for needy state and local coffers off November’s revenues.

So Far This Year

New Jersey's legal sports betting industry surpassed an almost-unfathomable $5 billion yearly sports betting handle in November. That already beats the $4.58 billion the industry rook in all of 2019. Without December's handle, New Jersey's sports betting haul has already surpassed what was taken in all of 2019's by 9.6%.

Conservative estimates have New Jersey finishing 2020 with a $5.7 billion handle, which would amount to a 25% year-over-year increase. The number, based on November’s totals will likely be closer to $6 billion.

New Jersey isn't the first state to eclipse a $5 billion handle - Nevada did it in 2018 and 2019, when it set an all-time yearly record handle of $5.3 billion.

The March Toward $1 Billion

It is all lining up for New Jersey’s December's sports betting handle to set yet another record. With football still dominating (it was responsible for $433.3 million of the November handle) and with basketball being added to the betting menu in December, a $1 billion month is certainly a realistic possibility for the New Jersey legal sports betting scene.

Any questions about New Jersey's status as the "King of the Bet-Friendly States" have been answered. Nevada, which has been decimated by a lack of tourism and has been hindered by its archaic mobile betting system won't come close.

New Jersey continues to impress - no reason to think a slowdown is imminent.