When the Ohio sports betting model was first unveiled, eyebrows were raised when it became clear that betting kiosks would be placed in venues such as bars, restaurants and even grocery stores.
With over 1,000 Type-C licenses offered out before launch, there were expectations that this could offer sports betting in Ohio another form of revenue.
Now the first month of revenue from these kiosks has been published by the Ohio Lottery, which manages and regulates these kiosks, revealing that they took $116k in GGR.
Throughout January, 772 kiosks were active – Intralot is yet to roll out its kiosks – and handled $850,336. This equates to around $1,100 per kiosk location.
From this, $722,376 was paid out in prizes, with the kiosks offering gross gaming revenue of $116,040. This equates to a hold rate of 13.8%, perhaps a little on the high side, but this could largely be driven by wagers aching the Cincinnati Bengals in the NFL playoffs.
Under the Type-C retail kiosk model, around 75% of the revenue goes to the proprietor of the kiosk, e.g the bar, restaurant or store, while 25% goes to the lottery for management and regulatory fees.
So, for January, proprietors took $87,664 in revenue, whilst the lottery took $28,376.
With this model being unique in the US, it is difficult to make comparisons or gauge this performance, however, in the coming months, more of these kiosks are set to roll out throughout the state.
Twinned with the expectations and anticipation ahead of Ohio’s sports betting launch, it is likely that these figures will begin to rise.
