BetMGM and Borgata Continue to Shine in New Jersey Online Poker Space

While the Caesars brands still lead revenue in the New Jersey online poker vertical, Borgata brands BetMGM NJ, Borgata NJ and partypoker NJ continue to be the standout operators in the market.

Based on the latest data reported by the NJ regulator, while the trio held on to the second place in the overall standings, it enjoyed 7% year-over-year increase over August 2020. That is quite remarkable: its the first time any operator has posted an annual gain since March, and it is lapping a very strong summer last year at the tailend of the pandemic-fueled online poker surge.

Overall, August 2021 online poker market revenue was a significant drop from that $3 million number from 2020, with just under $2.5 million in total online poker revenue.

While the Caesars brands (WSOP NJ and 888poker NJ) still posted the most revenue in raw dollar terms in August, that revenue of about $960,000 was down almost half from $1.7 million the month prior, which enjoy a brief surge thanks to WSOP online bracelets. Compared to last year, it is down from 27% from the $1.3 million reported in August of 2020.

The real bright spot in the market was Borgata, which posted second place revenue of about $800,000. That continued a small upward trend for the past few months, as well as maintained a clear lead for the 2nd place spot over the Resorts International and PokerStars.

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Another Solid Month for Borgata

It was always expected that annual comparatives through much of Q2 and Q3 2021 would be down from the same values in 2020, because 2020 was an unprecedented year for online poker traffic. So far, the only month in 2021 that has approached the $3 million level was July. Much of that came from revenue generated by the bracelet series on WSOP.com.

That makes the YoY increase for Borgata brands all the more remarkable. While August 2020 was the beginning of the end of the massive spikes seen in the market over the spring and summer months, it was still the sixth biggest month in recent market history, and the ninth biggest month even including the initial launch period in 2014.

Borgata is the only operator in the space that has posted any YoY increases since March of this year. Borgata also posted an increase in that month, some 16% above the March 2020 values.

The $2.44 million in revenue for the market in August 2021 would have been seen as an excellent month in the pre-COVID era, when the market was consistently less than $2 million. Expectations have changed since the 2020 numbers however, and so this past month was a drop for everyone except Borgata.

The Caesars’ drop was easily explainable, and still left it in the market lead. The position of Resorts and PokerStars NJ must be a little more concerning. For the ninth month in a row, it has posted the lowest revenue among the three licensees, and it now controls less than 28% of the NJ online poker market.

That compares to nearly 33% for Borgata, and almost 40% for Caesars, and that trend has continued throughout 2021.

It is clear that Caesars is still at the top of the pile, a position it has consistently held since the beginning of 2019, with the exception of two months during the pandemic lockdowns when Resorts managed to grab the lead. Borgata has also flirted with the lead a couple of times in the last 12 months, with December 2020 and March 2021 coming in very close to the market leader.

But in the end, Caesars seems to be holding top spot relatively easily in the market, leaving the 2nd and 3rd place battle to the other two operators. For now, Borgata seems to have the edge with consistent leads over Resorts for the past year or so.

With Borgata as the only operator to find YoY increases so far this year, and a consistent second place ranking through the year, Borgata is certainly one of the bright spots in the New Jersey market.