Ohio State fans were certainly busy late into New Year’s Eve. The OSU Buckeyes came up short against the Georgia Bulldogs in a thriller of a game that came tantalizingly close to midnight Eastern Time before reaching a conclusion.
Rose and Kosar headline celebrities making first Ohio bets
Minutes later, Ohio online sportsbooks officially launched. Operators were ready with sign-up offers and promotions, such as FanDuel’s shoo-in of a wager that there would be at least one passing yard in Sunday’s game between the Washington Commanders and the Cleveland Browns. New bettors could wager $50 on the promotion to win $100.
On the retail betting side, a number of casinos reached out to famous Ohio athletes to be part of the festivities. Former Cincinnati Reds player and manager Pete Rose, who was banned from the MLB for betting on baseball, placed the ceremonial first bet at Hard Rock Casino Cincinnati shortly after the ball dropped. Former Brown Bernie Kosar for Tipico online sportsbook, while controversial former Bengal Adam “Pacman” Jones did the honors for the Bengals’ sports betting partner, Betfred.
Here are the online operators currently live in Ohio:
- Barstool Sportsbook
- bet365
- Betfred
- betJACK
- betr
- BetRivers
- Betway
- Caesars
- DraftKings
- FanDuel
- MVGBet
- PointsBet
- Hard Rock
- SuperBook
- Tipico
Betr enters the fray with big social push
Many eyes are on betr, the Jake Paul-fronted site exclusively for micro-betting, which launched in its first regulated market on Sunday. However, it was not a complete launch, as bettors could only obtain the $100 free bet for signing up and could not deposit or withdraw.
Some other operators experienced early hiccups related to promotional credit and deposits on Sunday, but it was resolved after a few hours.
Paul was on site in the state along with a large betr-branded RV and Marco Piemonte, known to many online as Marco Parlay given his penchant for placing, and in many instances, winning massive parlay bets. After spending New Year’s Eve live sweating the last leg of a parlay Piemonte placed with another sportsbook, which would have paid out almost $1.5 million had Ohio State pulled out the win, Paul and Piemonte spent New Year’s Day betting on betr and sharing results on social media.
It is interesting to note that betr is taking the call to promote responsible gambling quite seriously, all of its promotional Tweets are threaded with a supplemental Tweet providing the hotline number for problem gambling. All of the social videos prominently feature the RG messaging as well.
Kiosk betting underway at bars and restaurants
While Kroger and other grocery operators will not launch kiosks in the immediate future, several bars and restaurants did have sports betting kiosks ready to go for the Jan. 1 launch date. These kiosks are overseen by the Ohio Lottery and only feature a limited range of bets. Bettors seeking totals, moneyline, and spread bets or parlay combinations of bets in those categories will find what they want. If you are looking for futures bets or prop bets, those will not be available.
Bettors are limited to $700 of wagers at these kiosks each week.
Provider BetiIGG reported it had roughly 100 machines installed and ready to go yesterday. Intralot also announced recently that it signed a five-year deal with the Ohio Lottery to provide its Orion Sportsbook product to licensed operators. At launch, Intralot only has kiosks operated by a clerk available, however self-service on these kiosks should begin sometime in January.
