After Huge November, New Jersey on Track to Become New Sports Betting Mecca
*By Michael Teich*
New Jersey is on track to overtake Las Vegas as the new sports betting mecca, Darren Rovell, senior executive producer at The Action Network, told Cheddar in an interview Friday.
With fewer than 7 months of sports betting on its books, New Jersey is expected to hit $1.2 billion to $1.3 billion in bets by the end of the year, Rovell said.
"As a comparison, Nevada is $4.7 billion," he added. "I think New Jersey and Pennsylvania will pass Nevada by 2022."
Bettors in the Garden State have been piling on the wagers. New Jersey just closed out its best month ever, attracting $330.7 million in bets during the month of November.
Mobile betting has been a key driving force in the growth of sports betting. Since June, 58 percent of dollars bet in New Jersey have been made digitally, and the number is climbing higher.
"Seventy-two percent of New Jersey money in November was on mobile, which is a better margin than a retail sportsbook," Rovell said.
DraftKings' early embrace of mobile betting put the daily fantasy sports app in a position to capture significant market share against rivals such as William Hill and FanDuel, Rovell said. The company brought in $7.1 million in gross revenue for New Jersey in November,.
"They have a real database of people who are daily fantasy players or as close to gamblers as you want, and it's active," he added.
The U.S. Supreme Court gave states the green light in May 2018 to legalize sports betting on individual events. Prior to the decision, Nevada was the only state where it was legal. Now, eight states have full-scale legalized sports betting: Nevada, New Mexico, Delaware, New Jersey, Mississippi, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island.
Nestlé has dismissed its CEO Laurent Freixe after an investigation into an undisclosed relationship with a direct subordinate. The company announced on Monday that the dismissal was effective immediately. An investigation found that Freixe violated Nestlé’s code of conduct. He had been CEO for a year. Philipp Navratil, a longtime Nestlé executive, will replace him. Chairman Paul Bulcke stated that the decision was necessary to uphold the company’s values and governance. Navratil began his career with Nestlé in 2001 and has held various roles, including CEO of Nestlé's Nespresso division since 2024.
Kraft Heinz is splitting into two companies a decade after they joined in a massive merger that created one of the biggest food companies on the planet. One of the companies will include brands such as Heinz, Philadelphia cream cheese and Kraft Mac & Cheese. The other will include brands like Oscar Mayer, Kraft Singles and Lunchables. When the company formed in 2015 it wanted to capitalize on its massive scale, but shifting tastes complicated those plans, with households seeking to introduce healthier options at the table. Kraft Heinz's net revenue has fallen every year since 2020.
About 780,000 pressure washers sold at retailers like Home Depot are being recalled across the U.S. and Canada, due to a projectile hazard that has resulted in fractures and other injuries among some consumers.
