GeoComply posts first results from Ohio’s sports betting market

Ohio is big – really big, and especially big if you factor in the sports betting interest by locals who pushed the numbers for GeoComply, a data and geolocation specialist, during the New Year’s weekend which was the first with legal sports betting industry in the state.

The company tracked more than 11.3m geolocation transactions during the period, making the state a leader nationwide. The betting activity tracked between January 1 00:00 ET and January 2 23:59 ET put Ohio ahead of states such as New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Michigan.

GeoComply SVP of Compliance Lindsay Slader hailed these results and said that the entire organization was pleased to see yet another state launch its official and regulated sports betting market. She added that around 44% of the adult American population can now place a wager.

Ohio did not disappoint, Sadler explained, with the Buckeye State setting up all the necessary precautions to ensure that local sports fans are protected and have access to safe and regulated betting products instead.

GeoComply offered a further breakdown into the numbers, and said that 16 operators had launched, leading to 234,000 geolocation transactions in the first hour of New Year’s Day alone from 784,000 uniqueaccounts registered.

These numbers put Ohio in a strong position, ahead of New York, which registered 9.3m transactions and had 460,306 unique accounts during the same period. New York has a population of 19.8m compared to Ohio’s 11.8m, which is an important distinction. There are some factors to consider here, though.

New York’s sports betting has been online for a while now, and it’s completely understandable that there is not the same pent-up demand for betting in the Empire State. Meanwhile, Ohio’s fans are hyped. Whether these numbers are just a start remains to be seen, but it won’t be unlikely for the numbers to drop a little after a while.

"As expected, residents of the Buckeye State enthusiastically greeted the market at the moment the calendar changed over to 2023," Sadler said. There are more exciting launches coming along in 2023, with Massachusetts one of the potential candidates to launch even ahead of the Super Bowl, although an exact start date is still a moving target.

GeoComply previously offered a great breakdown of betting interest in Maryland and the company tracked the most recent betting bonanza around the FIFA World Cup 2022.

Image credit: GeoComply