For nearly two years, Golden Nugget online casino has held a monopoly on online live dealer casino games in New Jersey but it will now come to an end because Borgata casino recently soft-launched live dealer games in its online casinos.
Borgata Breaking the Monopoly
Since the launch of live casino in August 2016, Golden Nugget and Betfair NJ, which operates under the Golden Nugget’s license, were the only two casinos in the state to offer live dealer games.
However, the situation changed recently when Borgata soft-launched its own set of games without any monumental announcements and funfair. Borgata-networked online sites Borgata Casino, playMGM and PartyCasino NJ will from now on offer live dealer games to its users following a collaborative deal that enables them to offer games from the Atlantic City live dealer studio.
It appears that Borgata is using Golden Nugget’s studio to offer games for the soft-launch and if it proves successful, they would most likely consider creating their own in-house studio to stream live gaming.
Four Games Currently on Offer
For now, four live dealer games are available to players. American Blackjack Live, American Roulette Live, Baccarat Dragon Bonus Live and Casino Hold’em Live can be accessed via desktop or mobile.
Borgata offers players an iOS app or an in-browser gaming option on their network. Games will be available from 2 pm to 3 am on Monday through Wednesday and 12pm to 3am on Thursday through Sunday.
Borgota hopes to boost its growth and flagging market share that is currently 16.8% with this latest addition. With its first quarter revenue of $10.75 million, Borgata is constantly second to Golden Nugget which reported $23.84 million. Golden Nugget improved its revenue for 32.5% in first quarter of 2018 compared to the same period last year.
Both Borgota and Golden Nugget are in advantage over the rivals Resorts, Tropicana and Caesars who are yet to embrace the genre of live dealer games.
Rumor has it that Evolution will be coming to New Jersey in the second half of 2018 which includes plans for an AC studio. Evolution recently opened their first live dealer studio outside Europe and posted a 30% year-on-year increase in revenue for the first quarter of 2018.
This number speaks in favor of the global popularity of live dealer games.