The Ohio Casino Control Commission recently announced sports betting numbers for the month of April, and the numbers were much worse than expected. The total sports betting handle for the month was just $520.6 million, and that’s the lowest monthly total since a January launch.
Ohio is the most recent state to launch online sports betting, and it was putting up massive numbers through the first three months. April is typically a month where sports betting tends to slow down, and that was felt in the state of Ohio in a big way.
There are 18 online sportsbooks in the state of Ohio, and those apps accounted for nearly 97% of the total handle. The total sports betting handle in Ohio during January was more than $1.1 billion, but the numbers have trended in the wrong direction since.
Not only have things been dipping since the first month of the year, but total sports betting handle fell nearly 30% month-over-month from March. Ohio could see some more disappointing numbers in the next few months as there won’t be as many good betting options throughout the summer.
Even though the sportsbooks didn’t see as much betting action as in previous months, the revenue numbers were still relatively strong. Ohio sportsbooks posted a hold rate of 12.2 percent, and that is well above the national average of around 8%.
Ohio has needed just these first four months to get over $3 billion in total sports betting handle, and that’s much better than what was originally expected. With promotions slowing down for new customers, sportsbooks will have to try new tactics to attract new action.
FanDuel Stays on Top, BetJACK Surges
FanDuel Sportsbook was once again the top online sports betting operator in terms of the total handle that was brought in. FanDuel posted a total handle of $184.6 million, but this operator has still been trending in the wrong direction as well.
DraftKings is the only other operator that is even close to competing with FanDuel, and that’s a trend that is seen throughout the United States. There is a massive drop after those two giants, but there was one online sportsbook in Ohio that is trending in the right direction.
BetJACK is the only operator that posted gains from March to April and that could be a good sign for the local options. There could be as many as 40 online operators in Ohio when the market is finally full, but that’s not going to be happening anytime soon.
Retail Sports Betting Dips As Well
Even though mobile sports betting tends to dominate the action in the state of Ohio, there is a large retail sports betting presence as well. As with the online market, retail sportsbooks struggled to attract betting action in April as well.
There are currently 14 retail sportsbooks in the state of Ohio, and all of them showed a decrease in numbers from the previous month. Total sports betting handle at retail locations was just shy of $15 million, with a total revenue of $1.5 million.
