New Jersey has had online casinos since ca 2013. Now the Garden State is adding another prominent brand to its digital ranks, with Bally’s Corporation launching its first foray in the state’s iGaming market through Bally Casino.
Even though the market has supposedly reached its maturity, there have been many new releases over the past year. FanDuel launched a standalone casino a few years back, and PointsBet followed in 2021. Now, the Bally Casino believes it has a chance to make its mark on the state.
Not Much Ado at All
The Bally Interactive division has been busy these past few years. The company spearheaded the launch of its digital sportsbook, Bally Bet, in Colorado last May. The betting platform has been able to add Indiana and Virginia as two new places of operations on its list. More importantly, Bally has secured an entry into the online betting market in New York.
Bally Interactive has chosen to launch the New Jersey casino without going the traditional lengths of notifying media members or at least not all of them. The Bally Casino just turned on the lights, and players started getting promotions and new marketing campaigns streaming in their social media feeds – but not too many at all.
The press release sent to the media detailed the launch and what to expect from the rollout. “Ballyacsino.com launched in New Jersey with premium games, including slots, blackjack, roulette, and video poker,” the message read. The press release went on to describe some of the main selling points of the new casino and included information about the games and jackpot opportunities:
“Players can enjoy the thrill of playing land-based classics and top slot games such as Wheel of Fortune Triple Extreme Spin, Cleopatra, Secret of Phoenix, Tiki Island, Monopoly games, and more! In addition, players can win free spins with popular Daily Free Games such as Search for the Phoenix and Tiki’s Catch of the Day. Bally’s will continue to add games including Bingo with multiple chances to win and an exclusive Super Jackpot!”
Bally Interactive
The lack of fanfare is understandable. Bally may be exploring the option of going private. Last week, the company received a $2 billion offer from its chairman to do just that. The idea behind this move is to likely alleviate some of the pressure that often gets good companies into tight spots due to shareholder pressure. There has been no official confirmation that the company intends to do that.
Investors’ earnings expectations have been weighing down most businesses out there and forcing them to compromise between pursuing long-term strategic growth and satisfying a rather raucous lot of investors.
Big Revenue Numbers for iGaming in New Jersey
But why is Bally not spending too much effort on advertising? Perhaps New Jersey is a big enough market so that discoverability is no longer an issue. Perhaps, the company is far more focused on making sure it gets New York right. Meanwhile, New Jersey now only has three available online casino skins up for grabs, which means that the market has not had its final say, and more companies may launch still.
New Jersey’s casinos generated some $1.337 billion in 2021, which is an opportunity for Bally to grow in the market and capture a piece of it. In the meantime, New York’s 51% onerous tax on online sports betting is definitely going to be challenging given who Bally is going up against in the state.
With the Super Bowl on the horizon, Bally will probably want to launch and market its product in the Empire State before long. This is not the time to be distracted with New Jersey, it seems.