Betfair New Jersey future thrown into doubt
Closure of land-based casino partner Trump Plaza may put Betfair's New Jersey operations at risk
Betfair’s New Jersey operating licence has been thrown into doubt after land-based casino partner Trump Plaza announced it was to cease operations in September.
“If Trump Plaza closes, then Betfair’s operation closes – at least in theory,” a US gaming lawyer told eGaming Review. “Having a bricks-and-mortar licence is a condition precedent to egaming operation – without a bricks-and-mortar licence, there can be no egaming licence,” he added.
Betfair has so far has declined to comment on what the closure of Trump Plaza means for its New Jersey business, however, gaming analyst Gavin Kelleher of Goodbody believes the operator will have been prepared for such a scenario.
“Many bricks and mortar casinos in Atlantic City have been in financial distress for some time now “ it was one of the reasons they were prepared to offer online gambling “ so I think the likes of Betfair, 888 and bwin.party will have had this in mind when deals were being signed last year,” Kelleher said.
“As such, I think Betfair would have known the closure of Trump Plaza, while unfortunate, was always a possibility and you’d be confident it’d have a back-up plan in place,” he added.
Betfair launched in New Jersey late last year after having agreed a deal with Trump Plaza and its parent company Trump Entertainment Resorts (TER) in July 2013 and currently operates BetfairCasino.com through the partnership agreement.
However, in order to continue to operate in the state it is believed Betfair will need to find an alternative land-based casino, a possibility which may have been aided by the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement’s recent decision to allow casinos to run multiple platforms.
It has been suggested that Betfair could find solace from TER’s other New Jersey casino, Trump Taj, although any deal could require some negotiation depending on the exclusivity of Trump Taj’s partnership with Ultimate Gaming.
The New Jersey market has so far failed to perform to early expectations and recently suffered two consecutive months of negative growth “ last month the market contracted by 10% to $9.5m.
Betfair’s revenues have also been a disappointment with the operator’s year-to-date gross gaming revenues in the state of just $3.7m, way behind the likes of Borgata and bwin.party on $24m.