Revenue Share Licenses for Online Sports Betting in New Jersey a Tough Sell

Those affiliate marketers looking to promote online sports betting sites in the Garden State of New Jersey might be better off signing up with Amazon and taking advantage of their 24 hour cookie window.

Not only do the New Jersey sports betting and online casino sites make it difficult to profit with their affiliate programs, one is required to pay a $5000 vendor license to take part in the revenue share model.  That's because New Jersey gambling regulators consider revenue sharing affiliates partners who are essentially getting a cut of profits. 

The Cost Per Acqusition (CPA) model is $300 to $400 and also requires a license.

Most of the sports betting and online casino sites will want their ad banners displayed ONLY IN NEW JERSEY, thus limiting the profit potential even further. This means they'll likely be requiring geo-targeting of banners, even though New York City and Philadelphia-based television and radio stations expose those outside the state to these online gambling ads.  New Jersey's entire media market originates in those two cities.

New Jersey's overall population is just over 9 million but anyone from anywhere can play for real money on sports betting apps provided by the likes of Draftkings and FanDuel.  For savvy affiliate marketers, these are the bettors they want to capture and do so before they end up in New Jersey.  That can't happen if affiliates are unable to target the out-of-state market.

And then there is this little nonstarter: NJ regulators don't want their betting firms appearing on sites that also advertise offshore sportsbooks and online casinos.

One individual, participating on the Affiliate Guarddog site commented:

The rev share license is pretty pricey and onerous to apply for. If I remember right, they require 90+ pages of information and more than $ 5000 to process it, with no guarantee of approval. Nor can it be done online. So a box of documents must be mailed directly to the NJ DoG. I see why most affs stay away from it.

Because the lawyers pretty much run these New Jersey-based sites with an iron fist, obvious "get arounds" won't be easy. 

The likes of LegalSportsReport.com have made inroads here to be sure.  If THEY are not seeing some positive results in the NJ market, we seriously doubt anyone else will.  And assuming they are, we don't see a whole lot more wiggle room here for anyone else.

Did we mention that the affiliate deals being offered by these NJ-based sites aren't exactly the best in the business?

Nobody in their right mind who is already operating in the online gambling space will be giving up their affiliate income derived from offshore gambling any time soon. 

- Gilbert Horowitz, Gambling911.com