Ocean Resort Enters New Jersey Real-Money Online Gaming Market with GAN

Posted on: July 18, 2018, 10:00h. 

Last updated on: July 18, 2018, 09:15h.

Philip Conneller @casinoorgphilc Read More
Expertise: Gaming Business, Regulation, Tribal Gaming.

New Atlantic City casino Ocean Resort, formerly Revel, joined New Jersey’s online gaming market this week with the full launch of OceanOnlineCasino.com. The site, which had been in soft-launch phase since last Wednesday was given clearance for take off by the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement on Sunday.

Ocean Resort
Ocean Resort joins the online casino market, while inking a deal with SportAD to offer its FastFantasy DFS platform. Online sports betting will be next, with New Jersey regulators expected to start authorizing it imminently. (Image: AC Ocean Walk LLC)

It becomes New Jersey’s 27th licensed internet gaming site, while Ocean is the eighth land-based operator to participate in the market.

The launch comes less than three weeks after Ocean Resort opened its doors to the public — the first time a casino has operated on the site since the closure of the financially stricken Revel in early 2014.

The new owner, Colorado property developer Bruce Deifik, spent $200 million renovating property, while figuring out where Revel went wrong. The latter cost $2.4 billion to build but failed to turn a profit during its two years of operation.

New Demographics

Defik will, at least, have two revenue streams that were not available to his predecessor, sports betting and online gaming.

Dermot Smurfit, CEO of GAN, which is Ocean’s technology partner, told the Associated Press this week he expected the website to generate an extra 10 to 15 percent in revenue for the casino, which will reach a different demographic.

Internet casino players are known to be largely a new customer demographic, when compared against typical casino patrons who frequent Atlantic City, skewing younger and more gender neutral versus the typical 50-years-plus gambling enthusiast found inside a typical casino,” he said.

Nevertheless, visitors to the land-based casino who are registered for its loyalty program will be able to use reward points earned at the property to gamble online.

FastFantasy Deal

After a slow start, New Jersey’s online gaming market has gone from strength to strength in recent years. In 2017, it generated $245 million in gross gaming revenue, an increase of 25 percent from the previous year.

New Jersey is expected to begin authorizing online sports betting imminently and Ocean Resort has a deal in with GAN to provide a digital sports book.

But in the meantime, Ocean announced on Tuesday it had signed a deal with Washington DC-based SportAD to offer its “FastFantasy” platform, which contains elements of sports betting and daily fantasy sports.

Ocean Resort opened on the same day as the Hard Rock Atlantic City, formerly the Trump Taj Mahal, on June 27. The Hard Rock beat its rival into the online gaming market, soft-launching its real-money casino site a day later.