Hollywood Online Casino to Launch In New Jersey

The New Jersey casino gambling market may already be large and offer quality services, but there is always room for one more. The state will soon see the launch of Hollywood Online Casino after it was announced that Penn Entertainment is prepping the brand for the Garden State. Players will be able to enjoy a host of gaming options from the well-known brand.

Hollywood online casino will replace Barstool as the brand did not fare well in the iGaming market. The New Jersey online sector already consists of established operators, so Hollywood will have to work hard to gain a foothold.

Penn Entertainment owns the Hollywood Casino brand and they are the operator behind the new services coming to the state. In a few weeks the brand will launch fully and offer a range of gambling services.

The change from Barstool to Hollywood comes just after Penn announced a new deal with ESPN. The two signed a ten-year agreement to bring ESPN Bet to fruition. The $2 billion deal will create a new sports betting brand and see ESPN Bet replace Barstool Sportsbook in NJ. 
The sportsbook is expected to launch in the fall, most likely after the online casino goes live. Barstool was unable to gain a steady stream of player traffic in sports betting or casino gaming, so the switch makes sense.

Hollywood Online Casino will offer services in New Jersey via the license held by Resort Digital Gaming. The license is shared among several operators, including DraftKings, Mohegan Sun, and Resorts. Gambling regulators in New Jersey do not provide revenue figures for each individual operator but provide reports based on license holders. Resort Digital Gaming is a top license holder in the state and big overall earner.

So far this year, the company has collected over $240 million in earnings. Totals through June are impressive and show that the Resorts license operators are doing well. Barstool was part of the group but only represented under 10% of the total earnings. Mohegan, Resorts, and DraftKings collected the majority.

All eyes will be on New Jersey as Hollywood Casino and ESPN Bet launch in the state over the next few weeks. Analysts are currently predicting how each brand will do based on the established market and brand recognition.

Hollywood Casino is a known brand but not well-known for its online casino services. The brand is not a household name like other top operators, and most people have no idea who the parent company, Penn Entertainment, is.

Other online casino operators like Golden Nugget, Hard Rock, BetMGM, and Caesars are expected to maintain the majority of the market share. We shall see, once the brand is live, if it can capture even a small portion of player traffic.

Hollywood is unlikely to gain a huge market share but still should be able to capture some traffic. A lot will depend on the game offers, promotions, and incentives provided by the brand.

ESPN Bet is another story. The ESPN brand is highly recognizable, and analysts feel that once it is off the ground, it could be a huge competitor or top-rated sportsbooks like DraftKings and FanDuel. ESPN will need to offer a quality sports betting product and market it to several demographics to try and gain a stronghold in the Garden State.

It is expected that ESPN Bet will branch out to other states in the future. It will most likely depend on how the brand fares in New Jersey before a move is made to enter another legal market in the US.