New Jersey Online Poker Sites Offered Celebrity Lifeline

December 7th, 2015 | by Greg Shaun

NJDGE may approve celebrity poker deals.

New Jersey online poker sites could be given the green light to forge celebrity endorsement deals. (Image: billontheroad.com)

New Jersey’s online poker community could soon see a lot more celebrities confessing their love for the game if the Division of Gaming Enforcement’s (DGE) recent proposals are given the green light.

As part of a new set of proposed regulatory changes, New Jersey’s licensed online poker sites could be free to utilize the services of celebrities in the same way many European operators currently do.

Listed under the heading ” N.J.A.C. 13:69O-1.4 System Standards and Operational Controls,” the new rules would essentially give sites the ability to pay well-known figures to help raise the profile of their site.

European Inspiration for New Jersey

Much like sites such as PokerStars already do in Europe, New Jersey’s operators would be able to fund a famous sport star’s poker exploits

What would be the benefit of this? Well, as PokerStars has proved in the past, the use of sporting stars gives a site the ability to breach new demographics and increase their player pool through a network of casual players.

This is something New Jersey’s iGaming market has been in need of over the last 12 months and it will no doubt be a popular decision if it’s approved in the New Year.

In fact, with PokerStars’ entry into the market likely to happen in the first part of 2016, there’s every chance this rule change will coincide with the site’s launch which would fit well with the operator’s current marketing strategy.

New Jersey Online Poker Struggling

Looking at New Jersey’s recent iGaming performances certainly reveals a need for change regarding the rules governing online poker. Although the industry as a whole is up year-on-year, online poker has struggled since it launched in 2013.

Although the latest reports from the DGE showed that iPoker revenues increased by 8 percent between September 2015 and October 2015, the industry is still generating less than $2 million.

Looking closer at the stats, revenue totals between October 2014 and October 2015 were down by 2.8 percent, which shows that the market is struggling to gain any traction.

While overall liquidity is one of the main reasons for this downswing, there’s no doubt that a lack of awareness has contributed to the problem.

However, if sites are given the ability to use major celebrities to push their brands, it’s possible that this downward trend could be reversed as 2016 develops.