CLEVELAND — Are you ready for some football? Ohio sportsbook operators like the JACK Casino in Downtown Cleveland are.
"We love football season; it's a big time for us, and it's a big time for this property, and it's a big time for Downtown Cleveland," said Adam Suliman, JACK's vice president of Sports and Digital Gaming.
The betJACK app has the Browns tied with the Seahawks for the 14th best odds to win the Super Bowl at +3500, meaning if you bet $100 and they win it all, your payout is $3,500. And it's a wager people are taking.
"Look, we're seeing a lot of people bet on the Browns. There's some big tickets out there on the Browns, so if the Browns make it deep in the playoffs, we're going to be sweating a little bit over here for sure," Suliman said.
It's traffic this, and every other Ohio sportsbook welcomes. January, after all, brought an eye-opening launch with more than $1.1 billion in bets made, a figure that by June had shrunk by 67% with just over $360 million wagered. That's actually not a surprise; in mid-summer, when baseball is pretty much the only game in town, sports betting numbers historically drop. That changes starting this weekend for a simple reason.
"Football is king, I mean, football is what brings in the money for sports betting operators," said Industry Analyst Robert Linnehan of XL Media.
"When football starts in September, you're really going to see those numbers skyrocket, and Ohio is certainly not going to be an exception to that," he said.
That's why Bally Bet, the official sports betting partner of the Cleveland Browns, launched their sports betting app this week. That's why Kentucky, the last neighboring state of Ohio to get sports betting, is launching next week, and that's why BetJack did an overhaul of its app after hearing from users who wanted to take greater advantage of parlays this football season. A sign that nine months into this, sports bettors are looking for more.
"It used to be I just want the Browns to win, now it's I want the Browns to win, and I want Chubb to score three touchdowns in the game," said Suliman. "And I think that little nuance not only adds a little bit higher return for the customer but also a little more excitement to the game.
"And so we've revamped the entire app and made it a heck of a lot easier to select exactly what you want, efficiently and get your bet in and move on with your day."
All of which Linnehan said is expected to bring sports betting in Ohio a little more of that excitement it saw in January.
"I can expect Ohio to be a top 5 market in the country, and I don't think there's going to be a lot of downside coming up in September here."
