Ohio Sports Betting is a Smashing Success

From the moment the U.S. Supreme Court said the U.S. ban against sports betting was illegal, the residents of Ohio have been expressing their support for sports betting in the Buckeye State. Three and a half years later, the sports betting windows are open.

It should come as no surprise that the first two days of legal sports betting indicate this is exactly what the people of Ohio have been looking forward to for most of their adult lives. To simply state that the launch of sports betting in Ohio has been a smashing success could well be considered an understatement.

A Look at Some Initial Numbers

The launch of sports betting in Ohio formally started on January 1, 2023. That happened to coincide with week #17 of the NFL regular season and the last of the major college bowl games. Unfortunately, it wasn’t in time for Ohio sports bettors to wager on the Ohio State Buckeyes in the NCAA FB National Championship Playoffs. Note: The Buckeyes covered the spread while losing to #1 Georgia by a single point.

With the betting markets that were available, here is what the Ohio sports betting community reported about the first two days of legal sports betting in the state. More than 11.8 million individual wagers were collected through retail sportsbooks and online/mobile sports betting operations. Those wagers were recorded in over 783K wagering accounts. These are amazing numbers given that the state has a population of 11.3 million people. That translates to almost one (1) wager per Ohio resident and almost 7% of the population opened their first sports betting accounts

So far, it’s too early to report on the state’s sports betting handle and gross revenue. With that said, it’s a good bet that the numbers could rival the kinds of numbers that were reported by New York in November of 2021. That was the month and year of New York’s historic and record-breaking launch.

It should be noted that a lot of Ohio bettors reportedly wagered on January 1, 2023, NFL Monday Night Football game between the Buffalo Bills and Ohio’s own reigning AFC champ, the Cincinnati Bengals. When a tragedy related to Bills safety Damar Hamlin forced the game to be canceled tens if not hundreds of thousands of bets on the game had to be refunded.

A Look at Ohio’s Sports Betting Operators

As expected, the list of sports betting operators that have been licensed to accept bets in Ohio includes the biggest names in the industry. Here is a look at some of the licensees along with their current affiliations.

Caesars Sportsbook – Scioto Downs
BetMGM – Cincinnati Reds and MGM Northfield Park Casino
BetRivers – Hollywood Casino Dayton
Fanduel – Belterra Park
Bet365 – The Cleveland Guardians
PointsBet - Hollywood Gaming at Mahoning Valley
Betfred – Cincinnati Bengals

To date, more than 50 Type A (mobile operators) and Type B (retail operators) licenses have been issued. Over the coming weeks and months, that number could rise to the 85 licenses that were authorized by Ohio's sports betting legislation.