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DraftKings Sportsbook Reveals $2.5 Million Sports Betting National Championship In NJ

DraftKings Sportsbook is quickly upping the stakes for sports betting nationwide, and in New Jersey with the first-ever DraftKings Sports Betting National Championship.

DraftKings Sportsbook is quickly upping the stakes for sports betting nationwide and in New Jersey.

The DraftKings national championship

The NJ sports betting and daily fantasy sports company announced the first-ever DraftKings Sports Betting National Championship. It’s a live sports betting event that takes advantage of the new legal NJ market. And it is the first major US sports betting competition to take place outside of Nevada.

It will take place Jan. 11-13 in Jersey City, NJ. The prize pool of the event will guarantee $2.5 million to residents, with $1 million going to the winner. That weekend is when the NFL divisional playoffs are held.

The top five places are all guaranteed a six-figure payday, and there will be prizes all the way down to 25th.

You do not have to be a resident of New Jersey to enter; you just have to be on-hand in New Jersey for the event in order to take part. (And be 21 years of age.)

How to make the sports betting championship

According to DraftKings, you can qualify by:

Playing in DFS qualifiers at DraftKings
Buying in directly for $10,000.
Winning via social contests and giveaways.

The entry of $10,000 includes $5,000 for your sports betting bankroll to be used in the contest, entry into the contest, access to the weekend’s events, and a hotel room for the DFS qualifiers.

How does the actual contest work?

Think you want to try your skills in New Jersey? DraftKings gave us some details on how its betting contest works.

All betting, of course, will have to be done via the DraftKings Sportsbook app, and all bettors start with a $5,000 bankroll.

You can bet on any sports you want in the contest on Friday and Saturday in January, but you must bet at least $2,000 on the two Sunday NFL games.

It sounds like a pretty wide open contest, whereas the SuperContest in Nevada is based on NFL games over the course of the season. The DraftKings handicapping contest appears to allow a lot more freedom.

How do you win? Have the highest ending bankroll after the last game ends on Sunday.

Hard Rock Atlantic City Will Have A Sportsbook And NJ Online Sports Betting, Top Exec Confirms

After weeks of speculation, Hard Rock Chairman Jim Allen confirms during the opening day ceremonies that a Hard Rock Atlantic City sportsbook and NJ online sports betting are in the cards.

Any questions about whether Hard Rock Atlantic City is going to have New Jersey sports betting were put to bed on Thursday.

At the resort and casino’s grand opening, Hard Rock International Chairman Jim Allen told the media that sports betting would eventually happen.

(For full coverage of the opening of Hard Rock after its transformation from the old Trump Taj Mahal, visit PlayNJ.com.)

Hard Rock AC’s plans on sports betting

There has been some question about Hard Rock’s sports betting plans, given its relationship with an NFL franchise. But Allen cleared all that up Thursday.

Here is what he said at a press conference:

I know we have had quite a few questions over the last month or so in regards to our ability to offer a sportsbook and the answer is “yes.” The media is probably aware that we are involved in the frankly now world-famous Hard Rock Stadium in South Florida. We are the host of the 100-year anniversary of the NFL and the 2020 Super Bowl. The events there have exceed even our expectations. But there are some restrictions in our agreement there which we want to comply with in accordance with our relationship with Stephen Ross, the Miami Dolphins and obviously the NFL.
So we will not be able to set the bet, but we certainly are able to partner with other companies, which frankly is most of the models where you partner with say a provider or a platform provider, and that will be our goal for Atlantic City.

Hard Rock AC will have NJ online sports betting, too

Allen also said Hard Rock Atlantic City would be in on the online NJ sports betting business, although we still don’t know how or when.

No. 1 we are certainly going to work within the guidelines of the Department of Gaming Enforcement in the state of New Jersey and while there are a few sports betting windows open at I think Borgata opened, we understand the market is actually more favorable with hand-held device or smartphone if you will.
So nobody has that technology approved yet by the DGE, we are in that process so we’ll be making some announcements in the next 30 or 60 days as far as how we are going to do that.

That means Hard Rock could be up and running by the time football season rolls around. We still don’t know who Hard Rock’s sports betting partner(s) will be, of course.

The Hard Rock online casino went live on Thursday as well. Its NJ online gambling partner is Gaming Innovation Group, which got the green light to go live from state regulators.

Atlantic City Casino Revenue Down Because Of Blizzard, But NJ Gambling Sites Hit New Record

It was the best of times and the worst of times for Atlantic City in January. Land-based casinos had a brutal month, but online casinos hit a new high.

It was the best of times and the worst of times for Atlantic City in January.

New AC casino revenue figures from the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement painted two very different pictures. While land-based casino revenue dropped in AC for the month, NJ gambling sites hit a new high. A blizzard at the start of the month appears to be responsible for the former and might have led to new heights in the latter.

Atlantic City revenue, at a glance

The blizzard took a bite out of revenue in AC for the month. Total gross gaming revenue clocked in at $184.3 million, down from $204.7 million, a 10 percent drop.

For the land-based industry, the numbers were even worse. The $162.4 million in revenue was down from $185.9 million in January of last year. That’s a decrease of more than 12 percent, year over year.

More from the Press of AC in talking with Jim Plousis, chairman of the state Casino Control Commission:

“What a difference a blizzard makes,” Plousis said. “When people are stuck in their homes by more than a foot of snow, and temperatures are dipping into single digits, they don’t come to Atlantic City.”

No game type was immune: Both slots (-$14 million) and table games (-$9.4 million) saw dropoffs with less traffic in town.

Full numbers here.

Winners and losers in AC casinos

Well, no one was really a winner; some land-based casinos just lost less.

Tropicana experienced the smallest drop percentage-wise year-over-year, pulling in $22.9 million, a six percent fall-off from last January ($24.3 million).
Resorts saw a similar drop, from $11.6 million to $12.4 million.
Caesars had the worst month, dropping 23 percent YoY ($21.8 million, down from $28.2 million)
Borgata was in the middle of the pack in how much revenue it shed from last year (11 percent). But that translated into nearly $7 million less YoY ($53.6 million, down from $60.5 million) for the AC revenue leader.

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Golden Nugget is our favorite NJ online casino, and for good reason. It has more than 500 casino games (the most in New Jersey) and offers live dealer games. It also has great deposit options and an easy-to-use online and mobile interface.

New record for NJ gambling sites

While it was a bad start for the year in AC, it appears that NJ online gambling is going nowhere but up.

On the heels of a year where revenue for online casinos almost hit $250 million, iGaming accounted for nearly $22 million in January. That’s up more than 20 percent from January of last year when iGaming accounted for $18.8 million in revenue.

That’s a new monthly high in the state since online casinos first launched in 2013. It’s just the fourth time in the industry’s history that revenue has eclipsed $21 million.

Golden Nugget, meanwhile, continued to dominate the competition on the online side, with $7.3 million in revenue. That’s the first time any operator has topped $7 million in a single month. It accounts for about one-third of all online gambling revenue in the state.

Borgata was a distant second, nearly $4 million behind.

The NJ online poker segment continued to disappoint, accounting for only about $2 million in a vertical that isn’t growing.

A Pair Of New NJ Gambling Sites On The Way: Ocean Resort, Hard Rock AC

Atlantic City’s newest casinos, Ocean Resort and Hard Rock AC, apply for NJ online gambling licenses ahead of their physical casino launches.

If you thought Atlantic City was done creating new New Jersey gambling sites, you were sadly mistaken.

Two new NJ online casinos

The two land-based casinos that are set to launch this spring or summer — Ocean Resort Casino and Hard Rock AC — are getting into the online gambling business, too.

The companies behind the two resorts have applied for online gambling licenses. Given they are both likely to get their land-based gaming licenses, getting the online licenses next to those should be a formality.

For those getting up to speed: Ocean Resort is the former Revel, while Hard Rock is the former Trump Taj Mahal.

What will the new NJ online gambling sites look like?

For one of the casinos, we know a lot. For the other, not so much.

Ocean Resort already partnered with online supplier GAN. That’s the company that powers the Betfair online casino that’s already operating in New Jersey. So you can get a pretty good idea of what to expect by heading over there.

For Hard Rock AC’s parent company — Hard Rock International — this is the first foray into regulated online gambling. Hard Rock has stuck to the land-based gaming industry for now. But its entry into the New Jersey market made it almost a necessity to offer online casino as well.

As such, we still don’t know who will power Hard Rock’s online casino. It could be someone already in the market, or maybe a platform provider we haven’t seen yet.

Will either casino have online poker? Right now, the answer is probably not.

But if the owners of Hard Rock AC want to get into iPoker in other states down the road, a launch in NJ would make sense.

Timeline for launch?

That one is up in the air right now, too.

While it seems safe to assume that both will get licenses, regulators probably won’t rush it. New Jersey has created the gold standard for iGaming regulation in the United States, so the Department of Gaming Enforcement is sure to make sure every “t” is crossed in vetting the two companies that will be offering online casinos.

Sometime this year seems like a safe bet, but whether it’s before or after the launch of the physical resorts and casinos is up in the air.

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Will these be among the best NJ online casinos?

It will be a steep climb for the two casinos to match the performance of the many websites that are already in the market and have been for years. Golden Nugget, for example, has a sizable lead over the rest of the established market, to the tune of nearly $2 million more in revenue each month.

But it’s certainly possible these new offerings could quickly reach the upper echelon of the best NJ online casinos in terms of quality.

As Hard Rock’s first entry into iGaming, it will want to get it right. It could have opportunities for legal online casinos in other states down the road.

But the bottom line is we’ll have to wait and see what these new online casinos will look like and how they’ll perform. But if you’re an online gambler, new choices are on the way.

What’s Next For Atlantic City And Glenn Straub? Who Knows

The biggest piece of property that Glenn Straub owned in Atlantic City — the former Revel/TEN — is no longer his. But he still owns property in town.

Is the saga of real estate developer Glenn Straub over in New Jersey? Far from it.

The latest on Straub in AC

The biggest piece of property that Straub owned in Atlantic City — the former Revel/TEN — is no longer his.

But he’s not done with AC quite yet, as he still owns 60 smaller properties in town.

“Even after the sale, Polo North is still the largest non-casino property owner on the Boardwalk,” Straub told the Press of AC. “We will move forward and be a spark for catalyzing positive economic movement in Atlantic City.”

So given Straub’s often contentious relationship with AC and government officials, what’s next for Straub in New Jersey?

Straub often has big plans

Straub won’t have anything to do with what will now be called Ocean Resort Casino, since it was sold to a Colorado developer earlier this month. But when he did, he used to promise lots of big things for the former Revel, a gleaming property built for more than $2 billion.

A short list of things Straub said he would bring to Revel included:

An equestrian center
A ropes course
An academic institution for geniuses
A water park
A medical tourism facility
A think tank

Of course, none of those things came even close to fruition. Straub, during his time in possession of Revel, was very good at talking big and doing very little of substance. (That included several promises of opening the property that came and went with no action.)

He also insisted that Revel would have a casino, even though he refused to apply for a gaming license.

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Straub might do absolutely nothing

Straub’s plan could very well be to wait for AC to continue to bounce back, which it has been doing for a year-plus, and do nothing with his current real estate holdings.

That would be the same formula he used with Revel, which he sold for much more than he bought it.

If he can do nothing with his AC properties and make money from them, that would seem far more likely than him actually putting money and time into them.

But this much is clear: It’s not the last we’ve heard of Straub in New Jersey.

What We Know So Far About Ocean Resort Casino, AKA The Reopening Of Former Revel AC

The former Revel Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City — aka TEN AC — is officially sold and will reopen this year under a new name: Ocean Casino Resort.

The former Revel Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City — aka TEN AC for a brief time — is officially sold and will reopen this year under a new name: Ocean Resort Casino.

Here’s what we know so far about the old/new resort coming to AC.

Here comes Ocean Resort Casino, the former Revel

Most of what we know about the former Revel — now Ocean Resort — comes from a press release from the purchasing company. The former owner — Glenn Straub — did finally confirm that the sale was happening, despite months of denying it.

The purchasing company — AC Ocean Walk — bought the shuttered resort for $200 million. Straub bought the company out of bankruptcy for less than half that in 2015. The casino had been open only briefly before that after being built for a price tag of more than $2 billion. The resort plans to employ more than 2,500 people.

“We are incredibly excited that we were able to take advantage of the opportunity to acquire this tremendous property at a time when Atlantic City is seeing great economic strides. Now the city has a number of exciting new projects with our property and the Hard Rock, as well as Stockton University’s new campus and the expansion of the medical center,” said Bruce Deifik, chairman of AC Ocean Walk, told the Press of Atlantic City.

When will Ocean Resort open?

The company said it plans to reopen the resort in “summer 2018.”

That’s obviously a large swath of time. Earlier reports had a possible opening in May, but that’s an aggressive timeline based on how much the new owners are planning to do to get the resort up and running. Investor documents earlier showed plans for $175 million dedicated to changes and improvements.

While May is possible, June or July might be more likely. There’s definitely going to be a race between Ocean Resort and Hard Rock — which is renovating the former Trump Taj Mahal — to be the first to reopen.

Will you be able to gamble at Ocean Resort?

Seeing as “casino” is in its name, that seems to be a given. When Straub was trying to reopen Revel, it was not clear gambling would take place.

But Ocean Resort will have 138,000 square feet of gaming space, according to new ownership. There will be 100 table games and 2,200 slot machines.

There are also plans already afoot for opening a sportsbook, as well, which would happen if New Jersey wins its US Supreme Court case to have legal sports betting.

So, yes, you’re definitely going to be able to gamble there.

Will Ocean Resort have online gambling?

There’s no word on whether Ocean Resort will join the NJ online gambling industry. But it seems like a safe bet eventually.

Even though it would be a late entrant to the market — online gambling has been around since 2013 in the state — there’s no reason why the new casino couldn’t get involved now. The market has continued to expand in recent years, and new brands and approaches to the online casino and poker space have succeeded.

It’s possible the online casino market is nearing saturation, but Ocean Resort could certainly get a piece of the pie. It’s even possible an online casino could come before the physical casino, based on how quickly the new owners appear to be moving.

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What else will Ocean Resort have?

Here are some of the other numbers on Ocean Resort:

1,399 rooms
165,000 square feet in meeting and convention space
5,700-seat concert hall with space for potential future expansion
7,700 parking spaces

Also from the owner:

“It is our mission and vision to fully serve the customer base of Atlantic City. In that regard, we are working to bring back some of the restaurants that were successful at the property and we have worked diligently to create some specialized new venues including a top Asian noodle bar and a high end players club. Our investment in this property will make certain there is something for everyone at the Ocean,” Deifik said.

Image credit: Jon Bilous / Shutterstock.com