GAN launches Online and Simulated Gaming at Ocean Resort Casino New Jersey

GAN today announced the company has simultaneously launched both real money Online Gaming and Simulated Gaming for Ocean Resort Casino in New Jersey supported by GAN’s Turnkey Managed Services comprising technical operations management, software development, customer services & payments management together with associated regulatory consultancy.

GAN’s Patent, now licensed to Ocean Resort Casino, will enable the client’s guests enrolled in Ocean Premier, Ocean Resort Casino’s loyalty program, to sign up online and instantly link their rewards card to their online account permitting those guests to trade in their reward points earned from on-property gaming for cash online and/or to earn rewards points from Internet gaming, to be subsequently redeemed on-property.

The Internet casino is now available on www.OceanOnlineCasino.com offering residents of and visitors to New Jersey a mobile-first Internet casino website/app design with Internet sports betting expected to be launched as an integrated extension in Fall of 2018 subject to customary commercial and regulatory approvals.

Highlights

• GAN’s second client in New Jersey for real money Online Gaming and GAN’s first ‘bricks & mortar’ casino operating real money Internet gaming on GAN’s platform in New Jersey (existing GAN client PaddyPower Betfair plc does not own/operate a casino in New Jersey)
• First client to adopt Turnkey Managed Services provided by GAN from an experienced team in New Jersey including technical operations management, customer services, payments management and associated regulatory consultancy
• Second New Jersey casino operator to license GAN’s US Patent for delivering converged online-to-retail real money Internet gaming.
• First US client to launch ‘dual-mode’ real money Online Gaming for New Jersey resident patrons alongside ‘freemium’ Simulated Gaming for patrons’ residents both inside and outside of New Jersey (~50% of Atlantic City casinos’ patrons live outside the borders of New Jersey)
• The launch of ‘Ocean Resort Casino’ branded Internet sports betting expected in Q4 2018 following the repeal of PASPA on May 14, 2018
• This is the fourteenth time GAN has licensed its US Patent to a major US casino and the second New Jersey land-based casino operator to license the Patent for both real money
• Online Gaming and virtual Simulated Gaming following the licensing & services agreement between GAN and MDDC (The Borgata) announced December 2016.

Company’s second client of real money Internet gaming in New Jersey following PaddyPower Betfair launch in November 2013 also reliant on GAN’s enterprise software platform and supporting services.

Management Commentary

Dermot Smurfit, CEO of GAN commented:

“Ocean Resort Casino is a fabulous casino property, unarguably offering the best quality gaming & hotel in Atlantic City, which has now been optimized for success by the new ownership and leadership. We’re privileged to bring this immense property to life online, just as it relaunches in the traditional retail casino market. We’re excited to deliver not just another ‘me too’ Internet casino, but to also bring online for the first time the capabilities unlocked only by GAN’s convergence Patent which may give casino patrons in New Jersey a compelling economic rationale to play online with Ocean Resort Casino rather than established incumbent casino operators already online in this fast-growing market. Ocean Resort Casino is anticipated to be material to GAN’s revenue and earnings in H2 2018.”

Frank Leone, CEO of Ocean Resort Casino commented:

"GAN delivered efficiently and cost-effectively for Ocean Resort Casino and possesses a strategic patent which will give Ocean Resort Casino a competitive advantage with casino guests in Atlantic City who also choose to gamble online. Furthermore, GAN’s proven platform, ‘dual-mode’ Simulated Gaming, as well as real money Internet gaming and track record of client success in the New Jersey market, are among the many reasons we chose GAN to bring Ocean Resort Casino online in 2018.”

FAQ’s about New Jersey Internet Casino, GAN’s Patent & US sports betting regulation

In May 2018, there were seven land-based casinos in New Jersey which generated $2.4bn in land-based gross gaming revenue in CY2017.

There are eighteen Internet casino websites in New Jersey operating under the seven licenses of the land-based casinos. Internet casino gaming in New Jersey is a fast-growing market which generated $221m in Gross Gaming Revenue in CY2017 (+30% Year on Year) and is anticipated to grow +20% Year on Year, to ~$266m in CY2018E.

Patent 8,821,296 was issued to GAN in September 2014 and governs the automated authentication, card linkage and intra-system messaging between the on-property Casino Management System and GAN’s Internet gaming system. Already proven for Simulated Gaming, the launch of the real money Internet casino gaming for Ocean Resort Casino is anticipated to generate new on-property visitation by Internet-first players as well as increase visitation rates among patrons who first engage on-property with Ocean Resort Casino then subsequently play online from home, accumulating reward points from online play.

The Federal ban on sports betting enshrined within Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act 1992 (“PASPA”) was repealed by the Supreme Court of the United States on May 14, 2018, permitting individual US States to pass their own sports betting laws.

New Jersey passed legislation bill A4111 on June 7, 2018, enabling land-based casinos and racetrack operators in the State of New Jersey, together with existing Internet gaming operators in New Jersey, to launch sports betting in retail properties and online.