Dreamstime/Maglara
New Jersey iGaming revenue hit at all-time high in July. Setting such records each month has been the norm for most of the market’s history. However, it’s more significant this time in that it marks the end of a three month long slump.
Collectively, the state’s online casinos earned $118,685,095 in July. The previous record dates back to March, when gross online casino revenue exceeded $110 million for the first time.
The July numbers represent a month-over-month increase of more than 10%. Of course, July is a day longer than June, but even accounting for that, daily average revenue increased 6.7%.
Most other iGaming states did not perform quite as well. Michigan and Pennsylvania saw almost no change in daily average revenue, and Delaware has been declining for several months. Only West Virginia saw a substantial increase in revenue.
Note: As many state markets have now reached maturity, there is less of interest to report at the state level each month. Online Poker Report has therefore elected to discontinue monthly state-by-state revenue reports in favor of a single monthly article highlighting the most significant trend of the month, followed by briefer state summaries. Feedback on this new format is welcome.
Long-term growth resumes in New Jersey
Raw data courtesy of NJ DGE
Daily average revenue for NJ online casinos amounted to $3,729,430 in July, compared to $3,494,819 in June and a previous record of $3,579,654 in March.
Since Jan 2019, there have only been eight months which failed to set a state record for online casino revenue. Most of these came in one of two periods. The first was a flat period in summer 2019, when operators were perhaps more focused on getting ready for the launch of the new Pennsylvania market. The second was Q2 this year, when revenue went through a three-month slump. Aside from these periods, monthly growth has been interrupted only by single-month blips in Dec 2019 and July 2020.
The more recent slump is probably due to a combination of factors relating to time of year and the pandemic. The single-month dip in July 2020 corresponded with Atlantic City casinos reopening. However, no one was vaccinated at the time, and casinos had strict precautions in place, including a ban on beverages on the casino floor. Those facts may have kept many players away.
Now, about 70% of state residents have received at least one dose of a vaccine, and casinos have relatively few restrictions in place as of early May. That may be driving more players back to the retail channel. Warm weather and fewer restrictions overall likely mean that many citizens are enjoying other forms of recreation as well.
By contrast, New Jersey online poker has been stagnant for years, and enjoyed only a brief boom due to casino closures. Sports betting in the state is growing year-over-year but is heavily affected by the seasons of pro sports leagues, particularly the NFL. Since that vertical debuted, NJ sportsbooks have been setting records consistently, but only in fall and early winter.
Michigan online gambling revenue – July 2021
Michigan online casinos and poker rooms stabilized themselves in July after a dip in June. Gross gaming revenue for all sites combined increased by 3.5% to $92.3 million. This still represents a small loss relative to the period from March to May, when the state total hovered close to $95 million. It’s also due mostly to there being 31 days in the month. Daily average revenue was essentially unchanged from June.
In fact, looking at things in terms of the daily average, the top three operators – BetMGM, DraftKings and FanDuel – all continued to slide slightly. This was offset by substantial gains from what could be termed the “second tier” sites, BetRivers, Golden Nugget and WynnBet. They occupy the fourth through sixth spots in the market, but are each less than half the size of any of the top three.
Their combined revenue increased 20% month-over-month. Significantly, they’re all operators which target pure casino players rather than sports bettors, especially Golden Nugget. One likely reason for their gains is that live dealer gaming in Michigan launched on July 22. If this is the reason, we should see an even greater increase in August, as the first full month of availability for those games.
Pennsylvania online gambling revenue – July 2021
Pennsylvania had an extremely stable month overall. Total combined revenue for PA online casino and online poker sites for the month rose 3.6% from June, but this was almost entirely due to the extra day. Accounting for the longer month, the daily average increased only 0.3%.
Perhaps the most significant development of the month was the launch of WSOP Pennsylvania. That brings the total number of poker sites in PA to four, though two of these (Borgata and BetMGM) are simply different skins on the same network. WSOP debuted in third place with $241,691 in revenue, but it was only operating for the second half of the month. When August’s revenue numbers come in, it should find itself in second behind PokerStars.
Though a quiet month, July did represent and important pair of milestones for Keystone State. First of all, the market turned two years old, as the first online casinos launched in mid-July 2019. Coinciding with that occasion, the state broke the $500 million mark in all-time aggregate iGaming tax revenue.
West Virginia online gambling revenue – July 2021
West Virginia recently concluded its first fiscal year of online casino gambling. The first operator to launch in the Mountain State was DraftKings Casino in mid-July last year. Over the past year the market has grown to include five operators sharing three licenses.
For the previous fiscal year, total revenue was a split mostly between the Greenbrier license (BetMGM and FanDuel) and Hollywood (DraftKings). They brought in $16.6 million and $16.3 million respectively, while the Mountaineer license (BetRivers and Caesars) earned only $0.9 million.
Much of that has to do with the timing of the various operators’ launches, spread out as they were over the year. Even so, the story is shaping up to be similar for the second year, albeit with Mountaineer trailing by a smaller margin. Greenbrier’s two skins earned a combined $2.75 million, while Hollywood brought in $2.09 million and Mountaineer about $0.45 million.
Delaware online gambling revenue – July 2021
The small Delaware market has been volatile over the past year. Like all legal iGaming states, it enjoyed a huge spike in online casino revenue in spring 2020 when COVID-19 shut down all land-based gaming. Where other states only saw a slight decline when casinos reopened, Delaware dropped more dramatically, relinquishing about half its gains by November 2020.
It subsequently rebounded this spring, coming close to a new record, but is on its way down again. July was the third consecutive month of negative growth, with daily average revenue across all verticals down 9%. Slots were responsible for all that loss, dropping over 13% as a daily average, though they still account for nearly 80% of the state total. Poker revenue increased very slightly, and table games by a more significant 16.5%.
Monthly total iGaming revenue by state
Here’s how all the states stack up in terms of revenue totals for July and rate of monthly and annual growth.
| State | July ’21 iGaming GGR | Change (m/m) | Change (y/y) |
|---|---|---|---|
| New Jersey | $118,685,095 | +7.3% | +39.8% |
| Pennsylvania | $104,538,317 | +0.3% | +52.9% |
| Michigan | $92,311,368 | +0.1% | N/A |
| West Virginia | $5,295,441 | +15.3% | +556% |
| Delaware | $793,017 | -9.0% | +12.4% |
Some important notes about these figures:
- Revenue given is gross gaming revenue, or our best estimate of such, regardless of what a given state reports. GGR is defined as wagers collected minus winnings paid out, and ignores any promotional expenditures.
- Monthly growth is calculated as a daily average to correct for varying number of days in each month.
- iGaming revenue includes both online casino and online poker, but not sports betting, instant online lottery or any retail gambling products.
- West Virginia reports revenue on a weekly basis, so monthly totals sometimes include a few days from the preceding or following month. Growth rates account for these extra days, however.
Additional revenue coverage in the Catena network
Although OPR is scaling back the level of state-by-state detail in its revenue coverage, those interested in a closer look will find it elsewhere in our network. Our sister sites have published revenue articles on the following topics: