Ohio is home to the Pro Football Hall of Fame, the NFL’s Bengals and Browns, Major League Baseball’s Guardians and Reds, the NHL’s Columbus Blue Jackets, the NBA’s Cavaliers, and college football’s Ohio State Buckeyes.
Buckeye State is home to many major sports, and starting January 1, 2023 at 00:01, there is also plenty to bet on.
Ohio’s legal sportsbook begins the new year with the debut of mobile sportsbook apps from major domestic operators such as FanDuel and DraftKings.
Ohio has sidestepped regulation of in-person sports betting, opting to address the massive tax potential offered by mobile and online sports betting.
One only has to quickly run through state sports betting revenue reports to see the difference mobile sports betting is making in terms of tax revenue and overall business.
There really is no comparison between in-person and online/mobile sports betting in terms of how much money they collect annually and it makes sense. When customers are given the opportunity to place a sports bet in a retail store or on a mobile gambling app, most often they choose the online option.
Mobile sports betting apps are also much less intimidating for newer players and open up to younger demographics than traditional sportsbooks can.
Ohio is currently the 7th US state in terms of population. Only Illinois, New York, Pennsylvania, Michigan and North Carolina offer domestic sports betting, with all but NC allowing mobile and online sports betting.
Top 10 most populous US states
- California (Population: 39,613,493)
- Texas (Population: 29,730,311)
- Florida (Population: 21,944,577)
- New York (population: 19,299,981)
- Pennsylvania (Population: 12,804,123)
- Illinois (Population: 12,569,321)
- Ohio (Population: 11,714,618)
- Georgia (Population: 10,830,007)
- North Carolina (Population: 10,701,022)
- Michigan (Population: 9,992,427)
PA has a population of about a million more people than Ohio, and the month with the highest revenue from sports betting in 2022 was January when they took in $793,722,787.
That coincided with the CFP and NFL playoffs and is also the same calendar month that Ohio will accept its first state-regulated bets of 2023.
If the Ohio State Buckeyes defeat the Georgia Bulldogs in the Peach Bowl on December 31, local players will have a chance to bet on OSU for the CFP National Championship on January 9.
“January 1st is a great time. There’s college bowl games, the NFL, the NBA is in full swing, hockey — everything’s happening right now, so it’s actually a really good time to start.”
DraftKings President Matt Kalish
Michigan’s January 2022 sports betting handle was $532,681,709. MI flirted with in-person sports betting for a few months until approving sports betting apps due to the pandemic. The intake immediately increased.
The legal age to download an Ohio domestic sportsbook app on your iPhone, iPad or Android smartphone or tablet and place a bet is 21.
Offshore sportsbooks are still able to serve Ohio gamblers with portable web-enabled devices, with some accepting members as young as 18. Internationally based sports betting sites also offer Ohio sports bettors the opportunity to bet on voting odds and entertainment lines that domestic venues cannot deliver.
Sources – NBC 4 Columbus, World Population Review