First Weekend For FanDuel Sportsbook: $1 Million In Handle

We know roughly how much in sports wagers flowed through the New Jersey FanDuel Sportsbook in its opening week: $1 million.

$1 million in handle?

The sportsbook at The Meadowlands Racetrack branded after FanDuel — the daily fantasy sports site turned sports betting operator — opened on Saturday.

Meadowlands owner Jeff Gural relayed what he knew about the metrics for the first weekend to NJTV:

“Our goal was to do over $1 million for the weekend. I know we were at $560,000 on Saturday and before I went to sleep last night we were at $465,000 or something for Sunday, so I was very pleased,” Gural said.

The opening of the sportsbook was generally well received, although experienced bettors were a little put off by the lines offered by FanDuel. (The sportsbook was in some cases charging a vig — or commission– on bets that was far above the industry standard, even at offshore sportsbooks.)

Is
that good or bad for FanDuel Sportsbook?

It’s a little difficult to gauge those numbers for the first weekend, but here’s what we know:

• The first few weeks of NJ sports betting revenue amounted to more than $16 million in handle across a few operators. Monmouth Park reportedly accounted for about half of that handle.
• Despite the World Cup final and the final weekend of Wimbledon, it’s still one of the slowest weekends on the sports calendar.
• The sportsbook was reportedly packed all day, and Meadowlands’ proximity to New York City would lead us to think there would be heavy traffic and betting just because of its access to a larger population base.
• Delaware sportsbooks, which opened in June, averaged more than $300,000 a day in sports betting handle.

Still, it’s difficult to make much of just a few days of wagering.

So what’s next for FanDuel Sportsbook?

FanDuel has the summer to get its legs underneath it, before the rubber meets the road for football season. That’s when we’ll have a true sense of how sportsbooks are performing, as that’s the best time for sports wagering in the US.

In the meantime, look for FanDuel to expand upon its sports betting partnerships — it already has deals to operate in both New York and West Virginia.