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It took the state of Ohio a longer than usual to get on board with legal sports betting. After a ton of back and forth, they finally went live with it in 2023.
Welp, it hasn’t even been two full years, but they are already reaping massive amounts of rewards for legalizing. Ohio has become a booming sports betting market — one of the best in the entire United States actually. We have new numbers to prove that, which we’ll get into in this article.
July Numbers Were Blow Out For Ohio
In July, Ohio’s sports betting market hit a major milestone. The Ohio Casino Control Commission and the Ohio Lottery reported a combined $55.4 million in adjusted gross sports betting revenue. $55 million, folks!
Mind you, July is historically one of the worst sports betting months around — if not the worst. The only real sport to bet on is baseball, which isn’t all that popular among American bettors despite the daily betting opportunities. Still, Ohio was able to keep pace with itself. July was the 16th month where in-state revenue surpassed $50 million — a pretty significant achievement if we’re being honest.
Since launching sports betting, Ohio has pulled in more than $1.43 billion in total revenue. Don’t think that was just driven by early excitement either. All signs point to revenue only being on the up and up.
This is best illustrated by the year-over-year growth. Compared to July 2023, Ohio’s July 2024 revenue shot up by 48.7 percent. This is a monster YOU beat. We would’ve been impressed with something in the 20 percent range, but Ohio is nearly at 50.
Almost all the gambling is coming via Ohio mobile betting apps, of which there are 18 licenses throughout the state. Get this, nearly 98% of all wagers placed came via the state’s mobile sportsbooks. Retail betting chipped in $10.2 million and kiosks across the state contributed a meager $614,000.
However, while revenue climbed, the total betting handle saw a slight drop, dipping by 10 percent. Despite that, the state collected $11.1 million in taxes, thanks to a 20% tax rate. So far in 2024, Ohio has raked in a total of $98.7 million in tax revenue.
Many operators are fearful that high-revenue states like Ohio will adopt harsher taxes, similar to what Illinois did. The state had a flat tax of 15 percent originally, but just this summer, it introduced a sliding scale that starts at 20 percent and goes up to as much as 40 percent.
Would Ohio ever follow suit? So far, they haven’t expressed an interest to do so. But with how successful betting has become inside the Buckeye State, it’s not out of the realm of possibility down the line if the budget ever gets in a pinch.
How Ohio Operators Stack Up Against Each Other
When it comes to dominating Ohio’s sports betting market, FanDuel is firmly in first place — and we mean firmly. For the 11th consecutive month, FanDuel has secured over $20 million in taxable winnings. In July 2024, they brought in $20.8 million, posting a 14.9 percent hold (which is abnormally high) on $139.4 million in wagers. This also marked the fourth straight month they’ve maintained a hold above 14.2 percent. With these figures, FanDuel’s all-time revenue in Ohio has now surpassed $600 million, thanks to a cumulative 14.4% hold on a $4.22 billion handle.
Meanwhile, DraftKings claimed the largest handle in July, accepting $160.2 million in wagers. Their $17.9 million in winnings wasn’t far behind FanDuel’s numbers, driven by an 11.2% hold (improving this could help them leapfrog FanDuel). This has pushed DraftKings’ total revenue in Ohio beyond $150 million for the year, and their all-time handle has now exceeded $4 billion.
Coming in third for both handle and revenue was bet365, which accepted $51.9 million in wagers with a 9.8 percent hold, netting $4.8 million in winnings. The England-based sportsbook has been deploying big-money promos to stand out, having awarded $14.7 million in bonuses so far in 2024. It’s worth a look for bettors wanting free football betting right now.
For the first time since January 2024, BetMGM posted a double-digit hold in Ohio, coming in at 10.2%. This helped them collect $3 million from $29.2 million in wagers, pushing their all-time handle in the state over the $800 million mark.
But here’s the thing: it’s only going to get better the rest of 2024. Why? Welp, because it’s football season — the biggest generator of sports betting revenue in the country. This especially applies to a football-obsessed state like Ohio.
In the NFL world, the state has two teams in the Cincinnati Bengals and Cleveland Browns. Both are expected to compete in the playoffs and in the Bengals’ case, even a Super Bowl.
But let’s not overlook the state’s most favorite team — the Ohio State Buckeyes in college. They are ranked No. 3 in the country and have won its first two games by a combined 108-6 total. As always with the Buckeyes, it’s title or bust. These high expectations are only going to rile up bettors more and keep Ohio on pace for more revenue records.
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