ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) — New York topped New Jersey in the U.S. sports betting market during the first two weekends when mobile betting was offered, according to the company used by most of the U.S. legal sports betting industry. It may have overtaken and won the top spot. Make sure that customer is where they say they are.
But even if New York seems poised to take New Jersey’s sports betting throne, it may not be shrinking the New Jersey market in the early days.
GeoComply Solutions, a technology company based in Vancouver, Canada, recorded 17.9 million transactions last weekend in New York. That’s up from his 17.2 million the previous weekend, when it went live in the state.
This data records the number of times a company has been asked to verify a customer’s location. This is considered a good indicator of the lowest level of sports betting activity, of which over 80% is online in the US.
According to the company, 1.2 million new accounts have been created in New York since mobile sports betting launched on January 8. Nearly 88% of these customers are new to legal sports betting and have never been verified by GeoComply.
Lindsay Slader, managing director of games at the company, said: “Data shows New Yorkers are ditching illegal sportsbooks for new legal options, and operators are good at attracting first-time bettors.”
The number of bets (called handles) made in both states has not yet been reported. The login numbers suggest that New York bet more than New Jersey, but it also shows that New Jersey probably hasn’t lost business to New York so far.
New Jersey averaged 12.6 million geolocation transactions in the two weekends before New York’s mobile service launch, and 13.1 million in the two weekends after.
According to the company, around 9.3% of bettors have accounts in both states.
Richard Schwartz, CEO of Rush Street Interactive, which operates the BetRivers online sportsbook, said: “This is by far the fastest start in our sportsbook market in terms of handles. New York has the largest population of any state with legal sports gambling. We are not only one of the few U.S. states to have multiple teams in all four major sports.It is simply a recipe for long-term success.”
FanDuel said it was “extremely happy” with the reaction of customers in New York.
“All markets are important, but it was especially important for FanDuel to be successful at home,” said spokesman Kevin Hennessy.
New York’s impact on the New Jersey market should be a phenomenon to watch. New Jersey casinos and sportsbooks say at least 20% of their business comes from New Yorkers who traveled to New Jersey to place bets before the city opened its markets.
States require gamblers to be physically within their borders to place online sports bets. This is where geolocation technology comes into play. It uses a combination of cell phone data, software, hardware, and databases to determine where your phone or laptop is. Betting is real.
While it is true that customers can log in and see their location without actually placing a bet, many gamblers also make multiple bets with a single login.
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Follow Wayne Parry on Twitter at @WayneParryAC.