Ohio Sportsbook Revenues Hit April Slowdown, Decent Debut Figures for Fanatics

Article ByDavid Weir

June 2, 2023

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Posted in: Ohio Gambling News, US Sports Betting News

Ohio’s online and retail sportsbook operations took in $520 million in total handle over the month of April. New figures from the Ohio Casino Control Commission released this week show a 29% fall on March’s $739 million handle.

The drop isn’t unexpected. The NCAA men’s and women’s basketball tournament spurs a lot of betting activity each March.

There are no year-on-year comparisons to make, as Ohio only launched its legal market on January 1 this year. It did bring in a huge $1.1 billion in handle in its debut month – something it was likely going to struggle to keep up in the short term.

In terms of revenues, the 17 operators kept $63.8 million, which is a respectable 12.2% hold. That takes the total revenues since Ohio’s market opened to more than $440 million, derived from some $3 billion of total handle.

Over that first four-month period, sportsbooks have paid $45 million in taxes in the Buckeye State.

FanDuel and DraftKings Mobile Dominate

As is being played out across most legal sports betting states in the US, FanDuel and DraftKings continued to dominate the online betting market in Ohio.

They took a combined 67% of the market share, with $345.9 million in handle and $45.2 million in revenue. FanDuel just edged out its rival into first place, showing a $184 million handle to DraftKing’s $161 million.

BetMGM came in a distant third with $38.1 million in handle. Just behind them was British-based operator Bet365 at $36.5 million handle.

Bottom of the pile were regional operator MVGBet alongside Jake Paul-backed Betr and new-on-the-block Fanatics.

Betr failed to even break the top 10 handle in its superstar investor Jake Paul’s home state of Ohio. It pulled in just $33 thousand for the month from a $750k handle, equating to less than 1% market share.

Retail Figures

Even the Ohio Lottery’s sports betting arm, who we reported was consistently losing money after considering setup costs, did better than Betr. Its kiosks pulled in a $1.2 million handle for April.

On the rest of the retail sports betting side, which makes up less than 2% of the market overall, Hollywood Columbus’ Barstool sportsbook dominated with just shy of $3 million in revenue.

Just behind them was Hard Rock Cincinnati’s sportsbook with $2.815 million in handle. However, Hard Rock did a better job of converting that into revenue than Barstool.

Hard Rock’s retail venue held onto $395k, compared to the $69k for the Barstool venue.

Fanatics Debut

April was the first market test of Fanatics Sportsbook. The veteran sports apparel and merchandise operator has been moving into sports betting for the past year, and Ohio was its first launch.

The soft launch, with a beta open to Fanatics store account holders who expressed interest, bought in $432k in handle and held onto $124K in revenue.

For a limited beta launch to already outperform several national operators who’ve been open for three months is an impressive start.

In May, Fanatics made one of the biggest moves in US sports betting this year with its $150 million purchase of PointsBet US’s operations. CEO Matt King then confirmed that the company aims to operate in 14 licensed US states by 2024.