July was one of three months since the huge traffic spike at the beginning of the pandemic from March to July of 2020 with more than $3 million in total revenue in the New Jersey poker vertical. When those crazy months of 2020 are removed from the data, July was just the third month since 2014 to hit that $3 million figure.
Even with all the data in play, July 2021 was the ninth-best month in New Jersey poker history at $3,072,756. There were five months during the height of the pandemic, and three more back in 2014 near the very beginning of the legal poker market in the Garden State, when revenue was higher, but even as late as the pre-pandemic months of early 2020, a month of $3 million total revenue was a distant dream at best.
The main beneficiary of the poker revenue boost in July was Caesars Entertainment, operators of WSOP.com in conjunction with 888poker. July was the beginning of World Series of Poker (WSOP) season with the US online bracelets on WSOP NJ and WSOP NV, and that contributed to nearly doubling June’s revenue in July.
The bracelet series clearly drove traffic, collecting around $18 million in prizes across 33 events, but Caesars has been at the top of the poker heap in New Jersey for quite a while. The operator took over the top spot in May 2018 when it dethroned rival PokerStars NJ (operating with Resorts International), and it has held that lead ever since, with the exception of a single blip in May 2020 when PokerStars NJ was on top.
Battle for Second Place
Caesars essentially owns the top spot in the market at the moment—even outside the tournaments, the WSOP.com/888poker US Network sees the highest cash traffic in the market by far as well—but there is a healthy battle for second place. Borgata NJ, along with partners BetMGM Poker NJ and partpoker NJ, has been holding second since the end of 2020 when it jumped ahead of PokerStars, relegating the one-time market leader to the bottom of the barrel.
Data provided by GameIntel
While total revenue is well off the totals for July 2020, that is hardly a surprise. Last year at this time was the height of the pandemic, and New Jersey posted a month of nearly $5 million in revenue, the second biggest month in market history.
July 2021 was still a near-record result outside the pandemic months. Most of that boost came from Caesars, which made more than twice the revenue of either of its competitors with more than $1.7 million in revenue. Borgata maintained their healthy second place lead over PokerStars with more than $100,000 in extra revenue over its rival, but neither managed to hit $1 million in July.
There is no question who leads the way in New Jersey online poker at the moment as even without the bracelet boost, Caesars has been leading the market for a few years. The interesting battle is for second place with Borgata currently holding a comfortable, but not insurmountable, lead over the Resorts/PokerStars pairing.
It remains to be seen how that battle will play out going forward. In non-bracelet months, Caesars can be vulnerable, as evidenced by March 2021 when Borgata was only about $30,000 behind the leader. So the top spot is not a lock and the revenue race in New Jersey will only get more interesting.
