Betfair Poker NJ Closes its Doors

Betfair Poker NJ Closes its Doors

Thursday, 4 December 2014

Despite running a successful operation in Europe, Betfair's New Jersey poker site hasn't managed to gain any traction since launching back in 2013.

Despite other sites in the State managing to stay afloat in the newly regulated market, Betfair Poker NJ has struggled to attract enough customers to keep the lights on.

With declining revenues and a ghost town lobby, the operator finally decided to close the site's poker axis earlier this week. Although the site still has a thriving casino site in New Jersey, any registered poker players will now have to find a new place to ply their trade.

Since online poker went live in New Jersey Betfair has run into issues with its live partner, Trump Plaza. After the venue closed the online operator was forced to broker a temporary deal with Caesars Interactive before gaining a new licence with the Golden Nugget.

These troubles, combined with a relatively slow poker economy in the US, have been the main reasons why the site has decided to close its virtual door.

While the closure of Betfair Poker NJ will come as a blow to the State, there are signs the poker economy is improving. Despite October's revenues being lower than the previous month, a recent tournament on partypoker NJ broke its $100,000 guarantee, which is certainly an achievement given the tough conditions in the US.

The closure of the New Jersey poker operation doesn't appear to have hit Betfair's bottom line. The company this morning reported that profit before tax for the six months up to 31 October was up 112 per cent to £67.3m with revenue up 26 per cent to £237.6m.



Tags: Betfair, New Jersey, USA