The bill also includes a provision that would allow the state’s Sports Wagering Licensees to offer two additional individually branded online/mobile sports betting platforms exclusively for Esports that would not count toward the current three-skin limit.

At this time, it is unclear whether the online/mobile offerings permitted thereunder would be limited to Esports betting (like the Vie platform) or would include Esports-inspired skill-based games, in which users may compete directly against the house and/or each other. If enacted, the bill would recognize Esports as an “authorized gambling game” and expand the definition of “internet gambling” to include “the placing of wagers with a casino licensee on Esports.” The bill would further authorize the DGE to issue additional internet gaming permits to existing Casino Licensees for “Esports.” These online/mobile platforms would not count toward the traditional limit of five individually branded online/mobile gaming platforms per Casino Licensee. In September 2022, New Jersey state Senator James Beach introduced an identical version of the bill in the state Senate. In June 2022, New Jersey state Assemblyman Ralph Caputo introduced a bill in the New Jersey House of Representatives to further bolster the esports betting industry. Earlier this year, the DGE also approved Esports Entertainment Group’s Esports-only online/mobile betting platform, Vie, which operates as an online/mobile sportsbook partner of Bally’s Atlantic City. The 2021 amendment allowed the state’s retail and online/mobile sportsbooks to bring Esports wagering into the fold of their established sports betting operations. In 2021, the legislature amended New Jersey’s sports betting law to recognize Esports tournaments approved by the Division of Gaming Enforcement (“DGE”) as a type of “sporting event” upon which licensed sportsbooks can accept wagers. In recent years, New Jersey lawmakers and gaming authorities have taken steps to establish the state as a major hub for the Esports industry in the United States.

Sports betting laws in nj