Record Revenue For Golden Nugget Online
Author:
Scott Lawson
This week, Golden Nugget announced that its online gaming vertical (GNOG) had shattered previous revenue highs for the third fiscal quarter, 2020. This is auspicious timing for the company, which will be going public next month, and which already oversees operations in New Jersey, and is awaiting a license to operate in Pennsylvania. Golden Nugget plans to expand into Michigan by December 31, 2020.
Golden Nugget’s online offerings have smashed records for revenue in New Jersey. ?pierre9x6/Pixabay
For Q3, Golden Nugget Online Sees Impressive Revenue
This week, Golden Nugget Online Gaming reported that its revenue for the third fiscal quarter of 2020 — which ended September 30 — shattered previous record highs. In New Jersey, where GNOG currently operates, gross gaming revenues increased by 93% from the same period in 2019.
This broke down to a revenue of $28.9 million in GNOG’s online gaming revenue for the third quarter of this year, compared to $14.9 million during the same period of time in 2019. Net revenue and operating income also indicated a tremendous upswing: a 92% increase on both fronts from the same period a year before.
Representatives From GNOG Are Confident and Optimistic
Speaking about this impressive showing, multiple spokespeople for Golden Nugget and Golden Nugget Online Gaming indicated their pleasure about these new numbers, and also a sense of certainty in the GNOG business model. As GNOG owner Tilman J. Fertitta noted in a press release, the company is considered by insiders to be “pandemic-proof”.
According to Thomas Winter, the President of GNOG, the increased revenue came from a significant uptick in player activity, shattering previous highs from pre-pandemic times. The company leapfrogged off of this promising statistic by investing heavily in marketing, and by consistently adding a treasure trove of close to 65 new games.
Growth On The Horizon For GNOG
As we move toward the end of 2020, GNOG is continuing its growth trend with several ambitious new expansion projects underway. At the moment, GNOG is working to secure a license to operate in Pennsylvania, a state which has increasingly demonstrated itself to be a power player in the landscape of legal US gambling and sports betting.
Simultaneously, GNOG is undertaking the work to operate both mobile sports betting and casinos in Michigan. The hope would be for this project to be realized by the end of this year, though that is an ambitious deadline. It is not clear whether the casino operations referenced by the company mean strictly iGaming, or include land-based options as well.
And that’s not all that’s looking up for the company: thanks to a purchase agreement struck between GNOG and Landcadia Holdings II in late June, GNOG will be going public on the US stock market in the coming weeks. The deal is expected to close, according to GNOG representatives, by late November, 2020.
What Is GNOG?
GNOG, or Golden Nugget Online Gaming, is the online casino operated by Golden Nugget, a gambling operator based in the US with brick-and-mortar casino locations in cities including Las Vegas, Atlantic City, Biloxi, Laughlin, and Lake Charles. The company also has a brand-new mobile app for Golden Nugget customers.
As referenced by GNOG President Thomas Winter, the online casino offerings of Golden Nugget are consistently growing, offering a massive catalogue of tantalizing new games like Polter Heist, Jinchan Cash, Three Card Poker, Monopoly Big Spin, 88 Fortunes, Road to Riches Free Spins, The Haunted Horseman, and Divine Fortune.
As Land-Based Casinos Struggle, The Promise of GNOG
The ongoing coronavirus pandemic has posed tremendous challenges to brick-and-mortar casinos, of which Golden Nugget has several in some of the largest cities for gambling in the US, including Las Vegas and Atlantic City. In both of those cities — typically mainstays of the American gambling economy — COVID-19 has had a devastating impact.
In Atlantic City, for example, economic woes long predate the pandemic: the city, located in New Jersey, has been facing significant hardship since 2014. As a result of the pandemic, Atlantic City casinos have recently announced layoffs of 4,200 casino-related jobs, shrinking the local gambling economy.
iGaming Growth In The US
Due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic and the impact it’s had on the global economy — not to mention the gambling industry, with months this spring of forced sports hiatus and indefinite casino closures — states around the US have been dramatically reconsidering existing laws which previously curtailed the growth of local gambling industries.
Focus Has Largely Been On Sports Betting
In general, states around the US have preferred to draft new laws regarding legal sports betting, which is likely seen as more controlled than iGaming. In March of this year, Michigan, one of the states in which GNOG aims to operate, legalized sports betting, though the state was largely disappointed by the results from the first month.
Pennsylvania, the other state in which GNOG aims to operate, has established itself a power player in legal US sports betting. This fall, Pennsylvania was the testing ground for the brand-new Barstool Sportsbook, an ambitious collaborative venture between Penn National Gaming and Barstool Sports.
