The first foray into sports betting for Philadelphia’s SugarHouse Casino is paying big dividends.
In fact, revenues at SugarHouse’ New Jersey online casino have more than doubled since sports betting launched on the site in August and PlaySugarHouse.com Sportsbook & Casino became a fully integrated online casino and sports betting site.
PlaySugarHouse.com Sportsbook & Casino is a run by Rush Street Interactive, the online division of SugarHouse Casino owner and operator Rush Street Gaming. It operates in NJ under the Golden Nugget’s NJ online gambling license.
Should things go as planned, a PA version of the PlaySugarHouse.com Sportsbook & Casino will soon be available in Pennsylvania as well.
In September, the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board (PGCB) approved SugarHouse’ online gambling license application. The casino is still waiting to hear on the results of a second license application that would allow it to offer retail and online and mobile sports betting in PA.
The New Jersey numbers
In the meantime, the early numbers coming out of New Jersey look promising.
Rush Street Interactive officials say live in-game betting has seen tremendous growth already. Plus, the start of the NFL season has seen the volume of bets on PlaySugarHouse.com more than double.
Rush Street officials also say more than 80 percent of the betting is being done on mobile devices via the PlaySugarHouse.com Sportsbook & Casino mobile app.
Rush Street Interactive COO Mattias Stetz is pleased:
“We’re very happy with the numbers we are seeing. We see that the player base is continuing to grow as the word spreads about the quality and volume of the different live in-game bets at PlaySugarHouse.com. We are at the start of the football season and are excited to see our numbers keep climbing.”
To no one’s surprise, Rush Street officials say football has proven the most popular sport for players to bet on.
PlaySugarHouse.com live in-game betting gives gamblers more than 50 different betting options in the middle of a typical NFL game. This includes betting on things like how many touchdowns a quarterback will throw or the outcome of the current drive. Of course, there are also more traditional bets, like a team covering the spread.
SugarHouse growth
Stetz expects live in-game betting to continue to be a growth area for the sportsbook. Plus, he said the sportsbook has given a boost to SugarHouse’ online casino games as well:
“Our casino bets have also grown since the launch of sports betting. Thanks to the deep integration of the sportsbook and the casino in both Android and iOS mobile apps and the desktop site, and players being able to use the same account and wallet, PlaySugarHouse.com casino has also grown across the board.”
Rush Street Gaming also owns and operates Rivers Casino in Pittsburgh. Rivers recently pulled its application for an online gambling license in PA. Speculation is Rush Street wants its SugarHouse brand to take the online gambling lead in PA.
Rivers Casino is also waiting to hear on the results of a sports betting license application it filed at the same time as SugarHouse.