Well the New Jersey online poker market just got a little smaller. Betfair announced that their iPoker room shut down on December 1st, marking an end for the state’s least-successful poker site.
The company will continue to offer online casino games to New Jersey residents, however, their poker page is already off the website. Furthermore, the client doesn’t allow users to launch tables any longer.
Betfair Poker poor performance in New Jersey to blame
It’s not hard to find reasons for Betair NJ’s decision to shut down their poker room. Tax returns filed with the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement show a combined $1 in rake earned in September and October. Since launching in November of 2013, the poker site generated just $51 in rake throughout its short history.
Betfair had hoped to get some help from Golden Nugget, which planned to join the Betfair NJ network once their poker site launched in early 2014. But as we draw closer towards the end of the year, Golden Nugget still has yet to launch an online poker room.
No takers on the generous Betfair Poker Sign-up bonus
One thing that Betfair NJ poker had going for it was a very good signup bonus, which essentially offered 40% rakeback to players. However, due to a lack of marketing and poor software, most players never found out/didn’t care about the bonus.
Betfair casino games succesful
While the Betfair iPoker operation may have been a massive failure, the casino games are doing relatively well. The company won $855,869 through online casino games in October, and they’ve made almost $6.8 million through the first 10 months of this year.
What New Jersey poker sites are left?
With Betfair exiting New Jersey now and Ultimate Poker having done so in September, there are now just three iPoker operations left in the Garden State. 888, the Party Borgata network and WSOP.com are all still serving New Jersey players. Pala Interactive, which is already running casino games in the state, intends on offering a poker site in January of 2015.