The New Jersey Devils announced today another partnership tied to sports gambling after the state made it legal a few months ago. The team is testing how much is too much as far as these partnerships go.
Sports gambling is something that should have been legalized a while ago. Many states already have casinos, horse tracks and even dog tracks, which have their own set of massive issues. Sports betting seems like the least of these vices when it comes to gambling. Sure, people may worry about someone trying to throw games and such, but that could happen without it being legal. You think someone willing to do that would stop because gambling isn’t legal?
Now that we got that out of the way, we really like that the New Jersey Devils made partnerships with casinos to bring sports betting to the Prudential Center. They are jumping on the shiny new thing for advertisers, and are likely making a lot of money to do so.
Monday they announced another partnership. This one comes with two different sides, as the Devils and the NHL have gone into business with FanDuel. The daily fantasy site is now getting into full-blown sports betting, and will bring another section for their fantasy sports.
I like the deal in a vacuum. Fanduel and Draft Kings were everywhere a few years ago, and now they are looking to expand even further. This gives FanDuel unprecedented access. There will be a Fanduel logo on the ice, making it the first appearance of a betting site to appear on a professional sports field in America.
These deals are likely making the Devils a ton of money, money they will likely partially be used to make the hockey-going experience that much better. Prudential Center is already one of the better arenas in the country, but now this makes it even more interesting.
The Devils were already the first major sports team to partner with a sports book with areas located inside their facility. They partnered with William Hill and Caesars, which will have lounges and workers to help people make bets on their phones.
So, now that the Devils are once again venturing into the world of sports betting, one must ask, how much is too much?
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Two things must be considered, oversaturation of the market and happiness of the business. We will start with the first point. This really hits the ‘how much is too much’ narrative. If there are multiple books in the arena, will people who are looking to make bets just split their time, causing both to get a small amount of profit? If the Devils keep letting companies in, won’t they eventually have too many companies to keep happy? If it stays at two lounges, that will likely be fine, but one has to think most of the people going to the arena didn’t go there to watch the game on TV.
On the other point, keeping these businesses happy might be harder than we think. Monmouth racetrack is bringing in major bucks thanks to gambling, but they have an unlimited capacity for those looking to get into the bets, and they are a legit sports book. This isn’t what’s happening at the Prudential Center. There are a limited amount of people who can get in, bettors will need a ticket to the game, and there will be no betting window to make the bets. If that was happening, this would likely make even more money.
Again, this is a good idea if the Devils keep it how it is structured now, but something tells me this isn’t the end. There will eventually be a limit to where the money comes from, and that could force companies to question whether this is worth it. It’s way early, and nothing has even been set up yet, but that might be a reason to worry. I hope gambling works at the Prudential Center, because it will be a cool leg up for the Devils over other arenas.