FanDuel And William Hill Kick Off NJ Mobile Sports Betting In Time For Football

The FanDuel online sportsbook is now live in New Jersey. For full details, visit the FanDuel sportsbook mobile app here.

Daily fantasy sports titan FanDuel released its New Jersey online sportsbook over the weekend. The company was one of two new operators to enter the New Jersey sports betting over the Labor Day holiday. William Hill also launched a mobile betting app, bringing the total online betting options in the state to five.

The list of betting apps is as follows:

• DraftKings
• FanDuel
• playMGM
• PlaySugarHouse
• William Hill

Both companies were already operating brick and mortar sportsbooks in the Garden State. FanDuel runs The Meadowlands book, while William Hill powers Ocean Resort and Monmouth Park.

One newcomer and one sports betting vet

The William Hill betting app arrived with li
ttle fanfare. However, given its status as an international leader in the betting industry, this might stem from the fact the app is something many people have interfaced with already, both in Europe and Nevada.

FanDuel, on the other hand, was revealing something brand new. Like DraftKings before it, FanDuel created an app that takes a different approach than the several boilerplate apps in Nevada. Legal Sports Report took a deep dive on the offering. One key takeaway was that it offered a wider variety of props, but can’t compete with DraftKings’ in-game offerings.

These two apps arrived in time to take advantage of the first week of college football games. The NFL kicks off its season on Thursday. Expect even more apps to enter the market before the first full Sunday slate of pro football games.

The Caesars Casino app is currently only available for Android, with iOS en route. FanDuel, on the other hand, has Android, Apple, and desktop versions available.

FanDuel has a historic rivalry with DraftKings

With this release, FanDuel has renewed its competition with DraftKings. Since 2011, the two companies have been colliding with one another in a variety of areas.

FanDuel began in 2009 as the brainchild of then-CEO Nigel Eccles. The company offered a brand new product – daily fantasy sports – that allowed players to abbreviate their fantasy sports seasons to a single week.

Players were able to compete with others around the globe. Even better, skillful players won massive sums of money online.

In 2011, DraftKings rose to meet FanDuel’s dominance. Through shrewd marketing and practices, DraftKings pulled roughly even with FanDuel in a new industry that had revenues surpassing $100 million annually.

Companies move quickly in rush to NJ betting market

The two companies continue to hold the lion’s share of the DFS market to this day. However, the US Supreme Court’s decision to eliminate PASPA opened a new realm of possibilities for both, and they began jockeying for position in the brand-new sports betting markets across the country.

FanDuel seemed to take the early lead through a variety of mergers and strategic partnerships. In May 2018, European gaming titan Paddy Power Betfair bought FanDuel, intending to use the brand as the face of a major US expansion.

However, DraftKings struck back two months later by being the very first online sportsbook in New Jersey. The company held that mantle for almost three weeks until PlaySugarHouse and playMGM joined late last week.

The five on the market still has competition coming. Both 888Sportsbook and Golden Nugget haven’t launched their online betting clients yet, so they are the names to keep an eye out for now that football season is off and running.