CLEVELAND — When it comes to sports betting in Ohio, football is king with the industry marking its second biggest month in November for bets wagered with the $864 million in bets, trailing only last January's launch which saw $1.1 billion in bets made.
"The NFL season is the cash cow for states with sports betting," said Robert Linnehan, Sports Betting Regulatory writer for Sports Betting Dime. "This is when they're going to do all the big numbers, this is when they're going to do their big business."
Online continues to be where 97% of bets are made with FanDuel leading the way with $293 million in handle, followed by Draft Kings at $275 million.
"I will say the big surprise of the month was ESPN Bet in its first full month of operation in the state it was the third most popular sports betting operator app in Ohio," said Linnehan of the site that was rebranded from Barstool Sportsbook. ESPN Bet saw $70.8 million in handle in November up from Barstool's $19.8 million in October.
"It leapfrogged Bet365 which had been doing very brisk numbers in the state, it leapfrogged Caesars, you know a lot of these longstanding apps that have been there," said Linnehan. "They're doing what they wanted to do. They're on the pedestal they're top three market share in the state."
Interestingly enough while sports bettors wagered 15.8% more in November than they did in October, they won a lot of it back. So the taxable revenue was down 15.4% from $80.5 million in October to $68.1 million in November.
Of the brick-and-mortar sportsbooks, the JACK Casino in downtown Cleveland posted its best month for gross receipts with $3.58 million in bets even surpassing the January launch, JACK Thistledown saw $1.8 million in wagers and MGM Northfield Park $2.1 million. However, four properties in the state paid out more in winnings than they collected in bets, including the Fanatics sportsbook at Progressive Field.
With the Browns beginning their march to the post-season in December winning their last four games in the month Linnehan said "you could absolutely see the December numbers eclipse the November numbers."
