Vegas Club Casino is one of the newest brands to join the extremely mature New Jersey iGaming market this summer. The platform from G2 Digital launched on June 25 via a market access deal with Caesars Atlantic City. Co-founders Greg Carlin and Dan Alexander are leading the team.
Deadspin spoke exclusively with Carlin, who previously served as CEO and co-founder of Rush Street Gaming and Rush Street Interactive, on a variety of topics, including the challenges of launching a new brand, what made New Jersey an attractive market, long-term goals, and more.
When NJ online casino players open the Vegas Club Casino app, there are colorful images of the Las Vegas Strip that help paint the picture behind the brand name.
Carlin said after leaving Rush Street, he spent time sampling many of the regulated online casinos. He noted there are some strong products out there, including BetRivers from his former company.
“I felt there was an opening in the market for a differentiated product. Vegas Club Casino was born out of a desire to return to the roots of gaming. This was an era when casinos were owned and operated by entrepreneurs who focused on the player experience,” Carlin said. “Dan Alexander and I wanted to build a ‘player-first’ platform. “The brand name reflects the timeless appeal of classic Las Vegas, which we are pairing with the transparency and security of a fully regulated environment.”
The Vegas Club Casino app currently consists of 255 slots and 96 table games. Carlin said the focus is on slots available in brick-and-mortar casinos.
While the game count is on the smaller side compared to more established brands like BetRivers (2,900+) and BetMGM (3,000+), Carlin said “We are continually expanding this library to ensure our players always have access to the latest and most exciting titles.”
The Garden State is the most mature of the legal U.S. iGaming markets as it debuted in November 2013. By comparison, Pennsylvania launched in 2019 followed by Michigan two years later.
Carlin referred to New Jersey as “the gold standard for regulated iGaming in North America.”
“Its maturity, regulatory framework, and scale make it the essential proving ground for any serious operator,” Carlin said. “If you can deliver a high-quality, compliant product here, you can compete at the highest level.”
The process of taking Vegas Club Casino live was far from simple.
“Launching in New Jersey is a significant undertaking because it is one of the most competitive and strictly regulated iGaming markets in North America,” Carlin said. “Navigating that regulatory rigor while building a brand identity that cuts through the noise of established giants requires precision, patience, and a steadfast commitment to our core operating principles.”
Building an iGaming app from scratch isn’t just about coming up with a catchy name, especially when entering a market where FanDuel, DraftKings, and BetMGM are all earning more than $35 million in monthly revenue.
With New Jersey online casino players now having 30 different options to choose between, there is no room for error if a brand is going to survive. Betway and Unibet are two established European brands that have come and gone.
Carlin said Vegas Club encountered numerous hurdles, including selecting the right technology stack, recruiting a strong executive team, developing our brand, and building our app entirely from scratch.
“In fact, I was dissatisfied with our early app design, leading us to completely scrap it and restart the process about 14 months ago,” Carlin said. “Now that we have launched, we are focused on refining the product and optimizing our strategy for customer acquisition. “In such an extremely competitive market, we made a deliberate decision not to offer a sportsbook, which has a smaller TAM (total addressable market) than casino, and we thought it would be difficult to build a better product than some of the existing sports-centric brands.”
Carlin co-founded Rush Street Gaming in 2005, and Rush Street Interactive seven years later. He served as CEO of both companies. In October 2022, he launched G2 Gaming with Alexander, the former COO of PlayStar Casino, another NJ online casino brand.
Carlin described his experience at Rush Street as “a masterclass in operational excellence and product development.”
“The most critical takeaway was the importance of player trust. We learned that while scale is important, long-term success is earned through fair play, reliable technology, and products that treat every player like a VIP, rather than just a number on a spreadsheet,” Carlin said.
Vegas Club Casino just wrapped up its first full month as an NJ online casino operator. Over the final six days of June, the brand only generated $5,873 in revenue. By comparison, Ember Casino launched in early June and earned $670,600.
The G2 Digital team is more concerned about three key metrics:
“We’ve been really happy with our early metrics, but our team is laser-focused on the player journey and experience and how we can make it better,” Carlin said. “Whenever you launch a new casino – bricks and mortar or online, there are things you didn’t contemplate or things that don’t work like you thought they would.
“We will continue to make improvements based on feedback and data.”
Carlin added the long-term goal is building a successful business.
“It means creating a great culture where the most talented executives want to work and providing the best online casino experience for our customers,” Carlin said, “We will never be the biggest, but we can strive to be the best.”
