Sports Betting
Evolution Plans to Build a $75 Million Live Casino Dealer Studio Campus in Atlantic City, New Jersey
In the United States, Swedish-based iGaming company Evolution is one of the top leaders for live dealers casino table games. Evolution works with numerous online casino platforms in New Jersey with business-to-business partnerships. They currently have live studios inside Hard Rock, Ocean Casino Resort, and Tropicana. Inside the studios, the live dealers facilitate table games to remote internet bettors.
2301 Farimount Avenue is where Evolution wants to build its studio in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Right now, the property is a paved parking lot. Evolution needs to get the approval of the Casino Reinvestment Developments Authority (CRDA) before anything can start. The CRDA oversees land-use planning and construction measures within the Atlantic City Tourism District. Additionally, the CRDA owns the property that Evolution wishes to build on.
Who has Evolution hired to help acquire this land to start building their live casino dealer studio campus?
Evolution has hired the law firm of Cooper Levenson and partner Lloyd D. Levenson will represent their project. Levenson is the head of the casino and iGaming practice at their firm. He’s been a long-time supporter of the Atlantic City gaming industry. Additionally, Levenson is a major benefactor of Stockton Univerity. This week, Levenson told the CRDA that Evolution employs about roughly 850 people in Atlantic City.
He claims their workforce would be significantly larger if they had a studio campus in Atlantic City. Rather than smaller live studios inside of a casino. If Evolution were to acquire the land the CRDA owns, they estimate that their staff would likely increase to around 2,000 employees by 2029. New Jersey is one of seven states that allow legal online casino gambling. The others are Connecticut, Delaware, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and West Virginia.
Since 2013, New Jersey’s online gross gaming revenue (GGR) totals more than $7 billion. The online gaming market skyrocketed amid the pandemic and it hasn’t slowed down. In 2019, New Jersey recorded $482.7 million in GGR. One year later, that number more than doubled to $970.2 million in 2020 alone. The New Jersey iGaming market jumped another 41% in 2021 to $1.36 billion. Their GGR in 2022 was $1.66 billion and it was $1.92 in 2023. Through the first four months of 2024, iGamig is up another 21%.