Swanky New DraftKings Sportsbook Opens At Resorts Casino In Atlantic City

New York Giants Hall of Fame linebacker Harry Carson bet the New York Yankees to win the 2019 World Series on Tuesday morning, the first wager at DraftKings Sportsbook located at the Resorts Casino in Atlantic City.  It’s DraftKings’ first physical location in New Jersey and the first on the East Coast, as the Boston-headquartered company continues its push from an online-only operation into physical spaces.

The sportsbook is the second of two at Resorts. The first is Resorts-branded, run by SB Tech and opened earlier this summer. 

The new sportsbook features 135 50-inch televisions and a video wall that is more than 1,000 square feet. Rows of club chairs sit in front of the video screen, with a bank of teller windows to the right, and a VIP Lounge to the left. According to the Nov. 14 DraftKings press releasethe facility has five teller windows, a full bar, charger stations at each seat and bar-top electronic slot games. The chairs are set stadium-style to allow for unobstructed viewing.  The risk-management and trading operation, as well as the 12 sports betting kiosks, are powered by U.K.-based supplier Kambi Sports, which also powers DraftKings’ online sportsbook.

 

Read more Swanky New DraftKings Sportsbook Opens At Resorts Casino In Atlantic City on SportsHandle.

New Jersey Sports Betting Handle Surges to $261M, Revenue ‘Just’ $11M As Bettors Exact Revenge

The good news for the New Jersey sportsbooks in the newly released revenue report for October is a large jump in handle from $186 million in September to $261 in October. The downside is that the bettors took a bigger bite of the books this month than usual, cutting revenue by more than half month-over-month from $24 million in September to “just” $11.7 million in October.

Overall that spells a 4.4 percent hold, down from 13 percent in Sept., which may be partly attributable to baseball (more on this below) and perhaps moreso a lot of “public” teams covering the spread in October NFL contests. The rise in betting handle is almost entirely attributable to the mobile/one sector, which grew from $105 million in September to $174 million in October. On-site sports betting inched up from $79 million in the prior month to $86 million.

Resorts Digital continues to lead the way by a lap on the revenue front, reporting $5.1 million in October, which is nearly half of the entire haul across all sportsbooks for the month. An arm of Resorts Casino, Resorts Digital figures represent DraftKings Sportsbook as well as BetStarsNJ.com.  We can no longer parse out which side is driving what, but based on prior figures we can safely say that DraftKings is responsible for the lion’s as well as the cub’s share. Let’s dig in a litter deeper now.

 

October Brick-and-Mortar Sportsbook Revenue:

  • Bally’s: $303K
  • Borgata: $120K
  • Golden Nugget: $46K
  • Harrah’s: $104K
  • Meadowlands (FanDuel Sportsbook): $1.1 million
  • Monmouth Park: $606K
  • Ocean Resort: $438K
  • Resorts: $97K
  • Tropicana: $15K

A spokesperson for FanDuel Sportsboook said: “Demand for the FanDuel Sportsbook continues to outpace our expectations with online handle 2.5 times higher than September and continued double digit growth in retail handle. It was an exciting month for bettors who won at a high rate on football and benefitted from our industry-leading pricing and odds boosts.”

October Online Sportsbook Revenue:

  • Bally’s (combination of CaesarsCasino & 888sport): $108K
  • Borgata (PlayMGM): $67K
  • FanDuel Sportsbook (Meadowlands): $2.43 million
  • Golden Nugget (PlaySugarHouse): $151K
  • Monmouth Park (William Hill and PlaySugarHouse): $609K
  • Ocean Resort (William Hill): $385K
  • Resorts Digital (combination of DK Sportsbook and BetStarsNJ.com):  $5.1 million
 

Read more New Jersey Sports Betting Handle Surges to $261M, Revenue ‘Just’ $11M As Bettors Exact Revenge on SportsHandle.

Physical DraftKings Sportsbook Set to Open At Resorts In Atlantic City

For the second time this week, DraftKings has announced the forthcoming opening of a physical sportsbook — this time where the post-PASPA U.S. sports betting expansion started, in New Jersey*.

“Construction is near completion on the DraftKings Sportsbook at Resorts, slated to open by late November 2018,” pending approval from the state’s Division of Gaming Enforcement. The Associated Press reports a more specific date — Tuesday, Nov. 20.  According to the AP, the sportsbook will be situated in an area where patrons can access it via an entrance off the Atlantic City boardwalk.

But wait, didn’t Resorts already open a sportsbook over the summer, branded Resorts, in conjunction with SB Tech? Indeed it did, but apparently there’s room for more than one operation to co-exist under the same roof, same as the digital arms for each property, which can implement up to three “skins” online.

 

Read more Physical DraftKings Sportsbook Set to Open At Resorts In Atlantic City on SportsHandle.