Sports betting officially came to New Jersey on Thursday, and there was no man more worthy of placing the first wager than Governor Phil Murphy. The governor’s signature on legislation to allow sports betting in the Garden State after a long and expensive uphill legal battle, resulted in the industry going live at Monmouth Park last week.
Governor Murphy chose to place a wager on the FIFA World Cup and the 2018-2019 Stanley Cup. He backed Germany to win the soccer tournament, and the New Jersey Devils as the potential National Hockey League playoff winners.
Monmouth Park Sports Book was the first and only sports book to offer wagers on Thursday, although more are expected to do so in the coming weeks as they get their infrastructure up and running. Five years ago, the UK bookmaker, William Hill entered into a partnership with Monmouth Park in anticipation of changes to US sports betting rules. Their patience paid off with the Supreme Court’s recent repeal of the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA).
The chief executive of William Hill US, Joe Asher, expressed his excitement to open legal sports betting at Monmouth Park.
“Obviously it’s a big day for us,” he said. “A lot of people have worked really hard for a long time to make today possible and I am grateful for their efforts.”
The group’s general CE, Philip Bowcock promised that this was “just the beginning”, adding that there was still a lot of work to do, but that William Hill was in a strong industry position.
“Today’s US launch gives us even more confidence about the future,” he said.
The man who was the most instrumental over the years in his fight to bring legal and regulated online gambling to New Jersey, former Senator Ray Lesniak, also made an appearance at Monmouth Park on Thursday. Speaking to the media, he said that the racing industry was very important to New Jersey and pointed out that the state has the most acres of horse farms than any other state in the country.
He also said that legal sports betting would help save Atlantic City casinos.
