NJ Sportsbooks Lose $4.6 million on Super Bowl Bets

by | Feb 6, 2019 | news

NJ Sports Betting With the Super Bowl having come and gone and the New England Patriots bringing home their sixth Lombardi trophy, can you guess how the result fared for sportsbooks around the country?

New Jersey took a hit, Nevada won big.

The New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement reported that sportsbooks in the Garden State lost $4.6 million on the “Big Game”. Meanwhile, Nevada books brought in nearly $11 million on a $145.9 million Super Bowl Betting handle.

New Jersey had a negative hold of nearly 13 percent across the 21 total sportsbooks (10 brick-and-mortar; 11 mobile).

Conversely, Nevada did have a 7.4 percent hold, but their overall handle was down from last year. The consensus on why the handle was down focused on a low money-line for the underdog Rams and the legalization of sports betting in other states.

“People are tired of the Patriots,” Westgate sportsbook manager Ed Salmons told the Las Vegas Review-Journal. “I really think the Patriots’ fatigue thing played a role. Everybody wanted to see the Chiefs against the Saints or the Rams. I’d be willing to bet if the Chiefs were in the game, the handle would’ve [blown] away last year’s record.”

NJ sports betting operators paid out $39,469,147 in winning tickets for the Patriots victory over the Rams. The overall handle in NJ was $34,894,900 on the game, leading to a rare win for the betting public.

NJ Sportsbooks FanDuel and DraftKings also took losses on the Super Bowl, with them losing $5 million and $1 million, respectively. However, FanDuel attributes a lot of that to new customer registrations and bonuses. They also took in over 350,000 bets on the game.

“After opening at +1 on New England, customers quickly pumped money on the Patriots and didn’t stop. By kick off, 75% of money was on the Pats,” according to a FanDuel statement. “In addition, new customers took advantage of a great sign up offer for the Super Bowl this week that won them $265 on a $5 bet with odds of 53-1. All of this combined to leave New England as a big loser for the FanDuel Sportsbook. Very big in fact. We estimate our customers won almost $5 million from us on the Big Game (net winnings).”

Now, it’s on to next year for Super Bowl future bets. That Patriots are favored to win once again on BetStars at 15/2 odds. The Chiefs, Saints, Rams and Steelers round out the top 5 2020 Super Bowl favorites.

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