Ohio on top

New York State’s year-long reign as king of US sports betting is under serious threat following Ohio’s phenomenal January. Since the beginning of 2022, New York has ruled supreme over all other US states in regard to sports betting handle, revenue, and geolocation volume.

Ohio has knocked New York off its throne for the second time

Now, according to GeoComply, Ohio has knocked New York off its throne for the second time in terms of geolocation volume despite its legal market launching less than 30 days ago. The Vancouver-based geolocation services firm shared an animation of Sunday’s Ohio vs New York betting activity via Twitter:

As the animation shows and GeoComply figures confirm, for the AFC Cincinnati Bengals vs Buffalo Bills playoff game on Sunday, Ohio outscored New York by 8.6 million geolocation transactions to 6.2 million. Even though there are 7 million more Empire Staters than Ohioans, the latter are proving bet hungrier than New York.

Dream debut month

During Sunday’s NFL game, transactions from the Bills home city of Buffalo comprised 4% of New York’s total. In the Bengals’ home city of Cincinnati, transactions accounted for 9% of Ohio’s transactions. It was the same story with pinged individual user accounts, with Ohio outperforming New York 888,000 to 492,000.

On Wednesday, News 5 Cleveland cited GeoComply’s senior vice president of government and public affairs John Pappas, who confirmed Ohio’s ousting of New York. Ohio launched sports betting on January 1 and Pappas stated the weeks since have been “amazing.” He added:

Ohio’s been one of the most impressive market launches we’ve seen.”

Signs of Ohio’s sports betting potential emerged as early as its debut weekend when its 11.3 million geolocation transactions outscored every other US state. Sunday’s stats confirm Ohio’s debut weekend was much more than a flash in the pan.

Is it sustainable?

While Pappas said Ohio’s sprint out of the starting blocks “has been pretty monumental,” he also said time would tell if the performance was just driven by post-launch excitement, or something more long-term.

Despite Ohio’s bet-hungriness, it may struggle to compete with New York on revenue considering the former state’s median household income rate of $79,000 a year compared to the latter’s $105,000.

The Ohio Casino Control Commission plans to release the state’s revenue figures for January at the end of next month.