Sports betting in Ohio is less than six months away from launch, but there is still plenty of work to do before then.
There are only 10 days left to submit applications for mobile and retail Ohio sportsbooks that want a chance to launch on Jan. 1. There can be as many as 46 online sportsbooks in the market.
That means the next week and a half could be busy for the Casino Control Commission considering just four mobile and three retail operators applied so far.
Newest OH sports betting applicants
There were three new applicants for the week ending July 1, according to the running list kept by the CCC.
All of the applications were for different categories:
- Barstool Sportsbook for its online license
- Elys Game Technology to run sports betting in lottery-licensed establishments
- Hall of Fame Village for its online and retail proprietor licenses
Penn National has Ohio access to share
Barstool Sportsbook’s parent company Penn National could be the company that financially benefits the most from Ohio sports betting.
Penn has four casinos in Ohio, which means it can sell access to up to seven online skins after accounting for Barstool. At least one of those skins is already accounted for by PointsBet, which sent Penn 509,128 shares in January at an issue price of A$6.88, or about $2.5 million based on exchange rates at the time.
That should leave Penn with two first-skin licenses and four second-skin licenses. That could actually be three second-skin licenses if Rush Street Interactive keeps the second-skin access it negotiated in February 2021.
Hall of Fame Village working with Rush Street
Whether Rush Street needs that second-skin access depends on its deal with publicly-traded Hall of Fame Resort and Entertainment Company.
Hall of Fame Village applied for both retail and online sports betting licenses. So far, though, the company has only outlined plans for a retail sportsbook with BetRivers.
Elys bringing DC sports betting experience to Ohio
Elys Game Technology also wants in on Ohio and will put its kiosk experience to work.
Publicly traded ELYS has been live with kiosks in the DC sports betting market since October. Elys partners with restaurants that want to offer their own sports betting experience instead of partnering with the DC Lottery‘s GambetDC brand.
The company recently signed its fifth sports betting partnership in DC and will have many potential partners in Ohio with more than 700 retailers already pre-approved.
Sports betting through kiosks at Lottery-licensed locations will be different than betting at a retail or online sportsbook in Ohio. Only spreads, moneyline, totals and parlay bets of two to four legs will be taken at kiosks.
