It appears basketball helped boost Ohio sportsbooks in the month of March, as total handle was up to $739 million, a 15.6% bump from the $639 million in handle from February. Revenue was also up to $92.3 million, an uptick of 10.8%. The end result was $9.2 million in tax revenue for the state.
The jump comes as promotional spending continues to dwindle. Operators cut spending 80% from January to February. The decline from February to March wasn’t so steep, but it was a 25% drop from $59 million to $44.5 million. What did change was which operators were doing the most spending.
Bet365 spent more than double market leaders FanDuel and DraftKings did with nearly $17 million in credits. That spending did help bet365 just edge past BetMGM in terms of handle for the month, but also meant that it operated at a loss for the month with only $12 million in revenue. While many of the smaller books were operating with slim margins, the only other operator to suffer losses on the month was Betr, which had just shy of $900K in handle, $172K in promotional credit, and $59K in GGR.
In terms of revenue, FanDuel led the pack with $37.3 million in GGR while DraftKings posted $25.1 million. The pair also accounted for 68% of the total Ohio sports betting market.
Here is a look at the top five operators by handle as well as the promotional credits they offered:
FanDuel: $258.5 million in handle, $8.4 million in promotional spend
DraftKings: $228 million in handle, $8.5 million in promotional spend
bet365: $54.5 million in handle, $16.9 million in promotional spend
BetMGM: $54.0 million in handle, $4.6 million in promotional spend
Barstool: $37.9 million in handle, $812K in promotional spend
Caesars Sportsbook was just behind Barstool with $36.4 million in handle, while there is a steep drop off in market share past that point. The only other operator with seven figures of promotional spending was Tipico, which put out $1.8 million in credit and generated just over $10 million in handle, putting it seventh in market share behind Hard Rock.
Retail betting accounted for almost $22 million in wagers, over $4 million of which came from Hollywood Casino in Columbus. The state’s kiosks were responsible for $1.4 million.
