Ohio ranks No. 2 behind New York in 1st month
Ohio bettors wagered $1.11 billion in January, the state’s first month of legal sports betting, vaulting to No. 2 in the nation behind New York.
Bettors lost $230 million overall during the month with $20.9 million in tax revenue going to the state, leaving the operators to split up $208.9 million. The figures were announced on Tuesday, Feb. 28, as Ohio plans to release them at the end of the following month, similar to Nevada.
New York was the runaway leader in January handle at $1.8 billion. Ohio has a rich illegal sports betting history, so it was expected to be among the top wagering states after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned 1992’s Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA) in May 2018 even though it took more than 3.5 years to take its first legal bet when it became the 33rd jurisdiction (32 states, plus the District of Columbia) on Jan. 1, 2023.
Like most of the other states that have joined the sports betting landscape since the end of Nevada’s virtual monopoly, the vast majority of action in Ohio is conducted on mobile apps. Of the $1.11 billion, a whopping $1.09 billion was wagered on the state’s 16 sports betting apps with Ohio’s 14 brick-and-mortar locations handling a relatively low $23 million.
Nevada also released its January figures on Tuesday, handling $935.8 million (ranked No. 4 in the nation with New Jersey at No. 3) and winning $50.4 million from bettors for a 5.39% hold.
Football was the big money-winner for the Nevada books, profiting $28.7 million, though that was down 21.5% from last January. Basketball was No. 2 at $15.4 million, followed by $3.4 million in the “other category” (all sports besides the Big Four) and $2.3 million on hockey. Baseball had a loss of $709,000, assumed to be mostly from tickets being cashed from the 2022 MLB season.
