The legal Ohio sports betting market saw more transactions and unique users over its first two days than any other state, according to a geolocation service provider.
Ohio sports betting, which launched on New Year’s Day, saw 11.3 million geolocation transactions across over 783,000 unique accounts from 12 a.m. Jan 1 to 11:59 p.m. Jan. 2, according to a GeoComply press release. That was the most of any state up and running with legalized online betting and only six million less transactions than New York had during its opening weekend last year, despite the population difference.
| State | Transactions | Unique Accounts | Population |
| Ohio | 11.3m | 783.9k | 11.8m |
| New York | 9.3m | 460.3k | 19.8m |
| Pennsylvania | 8.2m | 527.4k | 13m |
| New Jersey | 6.7m | 423.4k | 9.3m |
| Michigan | 5.8m | 418.5k | 10m |
Cincinnati’s red-hot start
Cincinnati saw the most transactions of any Ohio city over the weekend, according to GeoComply. Its 1.9 million were nearly twice as many as second-place Columbus despite a 65% smaller population.
Home to the MLB‘s Reds, which has a retail venture with BetMGM, Cincinnati is less than a two-hour drive from Kentucky, the only state that borders Ohio without legal sports betting.
Columbus saw slightly over 1 million transactions while Cleveland saw 772,000 and Toledo 619,000, according to GeoComply.
Ohio sports betting volume poised to continue
Ohio legalized sports betting in 2021 and has a dozen retail sportsbooks and 16 apps, though it is expected to add more in the future. Only New Jersey and Arizona have more legal online sports betting options.
It is the fourth-most populous state live with sports betting, behind New York, Pennsylvania and Illinois. Each of its professional teams has a path to opening retail sportsbooks at its arena. Several franchises like the Reds and Cleveland Cavaliers have already done so.
According to PlayOhio, Ohioans are expected to bet more than $8 billion this year, which would make it the fourth-largest market behind New York, Illinois and New Jersey.
“We are thrilled to welcome another state into the regulated online sports betting sector,” said Lindsay Slader, Senior Vice President of Compliance at GeoComply. “As expected, residents of the Buckeye State enthusiastically greeted the market at the moment the calendar changed over to 2023.”
