A third of the companies applying to offer sports betting in Ohio have a new deadline to submit necessary paperwork or miss the Jan. 1, 2023 launch.
Those unspecified applicants are missing information on holding companies and key employees that need to be cleared by the Ohio Casino Control Commission before licensure, Executive Director Matt Schuler said at Wednesday‘s meeting.
Applicants without those documents who plan to launch their Ohio sportsbooks by Jan. 1 need to submit all the necessary information by Oct. 5. Missing that deadline means they will be disqualified from a potential day one launch, Schuler said.
OH sports betting applicants receive tongue-lashing
Schuler sounded annoyed as he outlined the multiple times this requirement was pointed out to applicants. He did not appear to sympathize with any company that misses the newly set October deadline:
“We have about 33% of our applicants who are not in compliance with this requirement by the General Assembly. All applicants impressed upon the General Assembly that they wanted to start on time, at the same time. In order to do that they all have to keep pace.
“… [Disqualified applicants] can sit on the sidelines while everybody else who’s doing the work and keeping pace is going to make it across that finish line. Period. We do not have the time.
“And if someone believes as an applicant that they have the wherewithal to offer sports gaming to the citizens of Ohio, they ought to at least demonstrate that by being able to meet the minimum requirements set forward by the General Assembly.”
There are 132 applications in for proprietors, operators and suppliers as of Wednesday.
First Ohio operator, proprietors licensed
The first management services provider license awarded went to JACK Cleveland Casino for betJACK. The casino and JACK’s Thistledown racino also received two of the eight proprietor licenses approved:
- Cleveland Browns: partnered with Bally Bet
- Columbus Crew: Tipico
- Cincinnati Reds: Underdog
- JACK Cleveland: PlayUp, MaximBet
- JACK Thistledown: WynnBET
- Muirfield Village Golf Club: Parx
- PENN Entertainment‘s Hollywood Mahoning Valley: PointsBet
- PENN’s Hollywood Toledo: DraftKings
The Cincinnati Bengals and FC Cincinnati had their decisions deferred, as they had no representatives at the meeting.
The CCC also approved another 300 Ohio Lottery retailers to offer sports betting through kiosks, which brings the total to 500. More than 800 have applied with more than 1,300 are pre-approved by the Lottery.
