Whenever the New Jersey Devils take the ice hockey, fans will have the option of watching their game as well as other live matches out of a lounge area that looks and feels like a sportsbook.
As part of becoming a team sponsor, sportsbook operator William Hill will have its name on a Prudential Center lounge where matches can be viewed more than 20 screens with chances boards showing the menu of betting options across all sports.
Since the NHL is not comfortable with the site being a real sportsbook where bets can be placed in windows and kiosks, William Hill US CEO Joe Asher told ESPN that company ambassadors will assist bettors in downloading William Hill’s betting app. The space has been converted and rebranded fast, but there’s currently no opening date.
Odds will be displayed not just within the sports couch but also on the team’s 4-story scoreboard. The lounge will be available for every event in the place, including concerts. That’s a good deal of vulnerability, as Billboard rated the venue 10th in the world on its Arena Power List earlier this month.
“Our goal has always been to make Prudential Center the house of entertainment and sports in New Jersey, but ultimately our mission is to make the most lively fan experience in the market now, and the William Hill Sports Lounge will play a part in amplifying enthusiast experience here,” said Hugh Weber, president of the Devils’ ownership group, Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment.
William Hill, which operates more sportsbooks than every other company in the country thanks to its 108 locations in Nevada, has been competitive in New Jersey since May, if the Supreme Court allowed states to create their own conclusions regarding sports gambling after ruling that parts of the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992 were unconstitutional.
The company became the first operator of a sportsbook at the state as it started at Monmouth Park racetrack on June 14. But competition is fierce within the country, which can be projected to surpass Nevada in sports gambling manage and revenue.
Daily fantasy sites DraftKings and FanDuel, armed with a healthy database, have been among the first to launch programs on which lovers can bet so long as it had been performed within state lines. FanDuel followed up with its first sportsbook at the Meadowlands, on the grounds where the New York Jets and Giants play, which opened a month after William Hill’s racetrack location debuted.
“We are spending a considerable quantity of marketing dollars in New Jersey,” Asher said. “It will be quite a competitive and costly landscape for the next couple of years. A think a good deal of companies in the space feel the need to push hard at the country as a testing ground to prove they could be everywhere. In a sense, it is similar to the Iowa caucuses in politics”
Even though New Jersey is one of five states that has legalized sports gambling — along with Nevada, Delaware, Mississippi and West Virginia — it is the weakest state. In the first four weeks following sports gambling was legalized, New Jersey earned $336.6 million in wagers, as stated by the nation’s Division of Gaming Enforcement.
“I said that, when fully mature, the New Jersey sports betting market would double that of Nevada,” Asher said. “It is early days, but I could see how even that’s being conservative.”
William Hill is currently one of eight firms offering mobile gambling on devices within the state.
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