GeoComply has highlighted a strong start to the Ohio sports betting market, showing it to be one of the US’ most active markets during its opening weekend.
According to the geolocation and fraud specialist, the Buckeye State had 11.3m geolocation transactions over the New Year’s weekend following its regulated sports betting launch at the beginning of the year.
The 11.3m transactions came from 784,000 unique accounts across 17 different operators. 234,000 geolocation transactions even took place during the market’s first hour on New Year’s Day.
The activity in Ohio during its opening weekend has placed it at the top of the list in terms of geolocation volume, ahead of New York – one of the US’ biggest sports betting markets – which had 9.3m transactions during the same period.
The Buckeye State was also ahead of its more established neighboring state of Pennsylvania on the weekend, which recorded 8.2m geolocation transactions, as well as Michigan, which reported 5.8m transactions.
“We are thrilled to welcome another state into the regulated online sports betting sector,” commented Lindsay Slader, SVP of Compliance at GeoComply.
“As expected, residents of the Buckeye State enthusiastically greeted the market at the moment the calendar changed over to 2023.
“Today, about 44 percent of the American population can bet online with legal and responsible operators. The launch of regulated online sports betting in Ohio will better protect its citizens, with an increased commitment to responsible gambling and new funding for critical state programs.”
GeoComply’s data revealed that Cincinnati was Ohio’s busiest city in terms of geolocation transactions during the state’s opening weekend of legalized sports betting, with 1,898,000 transactions.
Cincinnati was followed by Columbus with 1,033,000 transactions, Cleveland with 772,000 transactions, and Toledo with 619,000.
Last month, GeoComply’s data revealed that the World Cup Final was the second most popular sports match of 2022 for US bettors, behind only the NFL’s Super Bowl.
Argentina’s win over France in the World Cup Final attracted 7.9m geolocation checks in the US, placing it behind the Super Bowl (23.5m), but ahead of the last game of the NBA Finals (5.1m), the NCAA March Madness final (4.8m), and the NHL Stanley Cup final (1.9m) in terms of transactions.
