Boyd Gaming to Acquire Resorts Digital and Mohegan Sun New Jersey

Boyd Gaming is poised to quadruple its iGaming market share in New Jersey with the acquisition of two new brands: Resorts Online Casino and Mohegan Sun NJ. It is acquiring the brands along with the assets of Resorts Digital from DGMB Casino, the company that owns the physical Resorts Atlantic City casino property.

According to a regulatory document issued by the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement (NJDGE), Boyd and DGMB agreed to a deal on May 15, 2024. However, news of the deal was not publicized at the time.

Under New Jersey law, only the owners of retail casino properties can hold master licenses for online casino gaming. Other operators must sign a market access agreement with one of the master license holders. DGMB Casino held its master license through Resorts Digital. However, because the latter will no longer be its subsidiary, it must surrender the license to complete the deal.

However, play at Resorts Online and Mohegan Sun will continue without interruption. DGMB will receive a new master license, and Resorts Digital, as a Boyd subsidiary, will receive the appropriate license to continue its operations through a market access agreement with DGMB.

A media contact for Boyd Gaming told Bonus:

 The acquisition of Resorts Digital Gaming is consistent with Boyd Gaming’s strategy of building a profitable regional iGaming business integrated with our existing nationwide portfolio.

As part of this transaction, Boyd Interactive has acquired the New Jersey operations of ResortsCasino.comand MoheganSunCasino.com, complementing our existing Stardust Online Casino in New Jersey.  New Jersey has long been one of the nation’s leading iGaming states, and we look forward to further growing our presence in that state’s online gaming market in partnership with Resorts Casino in Atlantic City.

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Boyd’s Foray Into iGaming Began With Stardust

Boyd made its entry into the online casino space belatedly but appears committed to the strategy.

Initially, it did so in partnership with FanDuel, in which Boyd owns a 5% stake. Like other sports-centric operators, FanDuel was interested in trying a pure-play casino product, and Boyd provided its Stardust Casino brand for the purpose. The original Stardust Casino had been a Las Vegas landmark since 1958 but shut down in 2006.

At that time, Stardust Casino players shared their accounts with FanDuel Casino and Sportsbook. However, in 2022, Boyd acquired Pala Interactive and decided to forge its own path for the brand. The following year, it relaunched Stardust Casino as a standalone product in New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

New Jersey began reporting revenue for individual online casino skins in January. Since then, Stardust’s share of that market has floated between 0.4% and 0.5%. There are more online casino brands in New Jersey than any other state, many of which have less than 1% of the market.

Mohegan Sun is in a similar position, with a market share of around 0.6%. However, Resorts Online is the biggest of the three at between 1.0% and 1.2%. 

Boyd won’t be the only operator with multiple brands in the state. BetMGM, for instance, has four: its eponymous flagship plus Borgata Online, Wheel of Fortune, and Party Casino. However, Boyd will be unique in owning a secondary local brand with a greater market share than its national brand.

Assuming little change in traffic to the sites following the transaction, Boyd will have a little over 2% of the market, putting it on a similar footing in the state to Bally’s, Rush Street Interactive (BetRivers), or PENN (Hollywood).

Other Online Casino Agreements Remain With Resorts

Boyd’s long-term plans for Resorts Online Casino and Mohegan Sun remain to be seen. In the short term, however, very little will change for players. There’s a lot of regulatory nitty-gritty happening on the back end to keep all the licensing structures in compliance with state law, but that should happen seamlessly.

The loss of direct iGaming revenue from the two skins may not bother DGMB Casino much. As the holder of the master license, it will retain the market access agreements with other skins using the license, including DraftKings Casino and PokerStars. 

The exact terms of those agreements aren’t public knowledge. However, they involve some share of those brands’ revenue going to DGMB in return for operating under its master license. DraftKings, on its own, accounts for roughly 21% of the total market. So, even a small share of its revenue may rival what DGMB was earning as an operator, and without any of the overhead that comes with running an online casino.

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DraftKings Brands Lead New Jersey Market, New Regulatory Data Reveals

New Jersey market shares for online casino brands are now public information thanks to a change in reporting by the Division of Gaming Enforcement (DGE). The DGE’s new numbers reveal monthly revenue for 30 online casino skins in what is by far the most crowded market for iGaming in the US. Foremost among these is DraftKings, whose flagship site holds 22% of the iGaming market.

At first glance, the New Jersey online casino market appears complicated because of the number of brands. However, many skins are “sister brands” with the same parent company. For example, MGM Resorts International and its joint venture partner Entain operate under four separate names: BetMGM, Borgata Online, Wheel of Fortune Casino, and Party. 

The New Jersey online casino market breaks down similarly to Michigan's despite the larger number of brands.

Lumping co-owned brands together, the picture that emerges is not too different from other states. The best point of comparison is with Michigan, which allows only 15 online casino brands, each on a separate license, making market shares clearly visible.

In both cases, the market lead is a tight race between MGM, DraftKings, and Flutter. 

Flutter’s US flagship, FanDuel, recently overtook BetMGM as the iGaming market leader in Michigan. If you include its other subsidiary, PokerStars, it has been on top for longer.

In New Jersey, it remains deadlocked with MGM for second place, while DraftKings leads. Aside from the 22% held by its namesake site, it can count the 3% of the market held by Golden Nugget, which it acquired in 2022.

‘Big Three’ Weaker in NJ Thanks to Hard Rock

DraftKings’ lead in New Jersey may only be temporary, as the race is close, and we have no data outside of Q1 2024. As we’ve seen in Michigan, any of the three is capable of making a move, and there’s no runaway leader for the US as a whole.

What is perhaps more significant is that the “Big Three” are collectively less dominant in New Jersey than they are in Michigan. In the latter state, the combined share for the three flagship brands has rarely wavered much from 70%. Including Golden Nugget (for DraftKings) and PokerStars (for Flutter) puts it at 76% in Michigan for Q1 2024.

In New Jersey, they hold just 69% with a combined eight brands, less than the three flagship brands hold on their own in Michigan.

We can attribute essentially all of the difference to the presence of Hard Rock Bet in New Jersey. It holds an impressive 9% of the market. For comparison, that’s as much as all Caesars-owned brands combined. With nearly $26 million in first-quarter revenue, it’s remarkably big for a brand that doesn’t exist in other states except as a standalone sportsbook.

Hard Rock has a well-known retail presence in Atlantic City and entered the online casino market in 2018. That meant it narrowly beat the rush of new brands attracted by the legalization of sports betting. Lacking that advantage in other states, it has taken a more cautious approach. For now, it has stayed out of Michigan, Pennsylvania, and the other iGaming states.

Multiple Brands Aren’t Generally Additive

Looking at the New Jersey breakdown is instructive in that it shows that market shares are generally held by parent companies, not brands. That is to say, there’s little evidence that adding new brands can bolster a company’s market share. Even when they perform well, they appear to pull market share away from the company’s other brands rather than from competitors.

BetMGM Casino and its affiliated brands are the clearest illustration of this. In Michigan, it’s the only brand operated by MGM and Entain and once held as much as 40% of the market. Now, it has fallen to 25% but remains in a close second of FanDuel.

In New Jersey, MGM’s total market share is 22%, which is close to what it has in Michigan. However, BetMGM as a single brand holds only 11%, while Borgata holds 9%. The rest comes from Party and Wheel of Fortune.

Like Hard Rock, Borgata is a famous retail property in Atlantic City, which explains the brand’s power. MGM also operates Borgata Online in Pennsylvania. Exact online casino market shares aren’t visible, but BetMGM and Borgata split online poker revenue 75/25.

There are some exceptions to this principle. DraftKings’ market lead in New Jersey may well stem from its acquisition of Golden Nugget. That’s because Golden Nugget had a longstanding retail and online presence in the Garden State. Thus, DraftKings was buying existing customers as well as a brand.

Caesars is also doing much better in New Jersey, with a 9% market share compared to 6% in Michigan. Like MGM, it operates under four brands in New Jersey. However, it has the same advantages as Hard Rock and Golden Nugget. It has been in the online casino market since it opened in 2013. Moreover, it owns three of the nine Atlantic City casinos, whose brand power and customer databases it can leverage to support its online platforms.

For more info on NJ’s top online casinos: DraftKings Casino | BetMGM Casino | FanDuel Casino | Caesars Palace | Hard Rock Bet

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