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Ohio sports betting is one of the best in the country. Seriously, among all the legal sports betting markets, Ohio is closer to the top-5 than top-10.
Makes sense, right? The Buckeye State is known for its affinity for sports, starting with the team it shares a nickname with — Ohio State. That’s the pride and joy of the state, but there’s also the Browns, Bengals, Cavaliers, Guardians, and other college teams.
But guess what? Ohio’s sports betting scene is showing no signs of slowing down. The opposite actually — it’s accelerating if recent numbers are to be believed. If this holds up, Ohio is about to set new sports betting marks this football season.
Ohio Posts Blowout Numbers In August
Ohio’s sportsbooks didn’t just have a good August — they had their best one ever. The Ohio Casino Control Commission reported $663.2 million in total handle, a 21 percent jump from last year’s August and the biggest surge since May’s $741 million haul. Not bad for a state that’s had legal sports betting since 2023.
A perfect storm fueled the spike: the early kickoff to college football, a full NFL preseason slate, and a busy MLB betting calendar all collided at once. Upsets across college football only helped the books even more, driving a nearly 50-percent year-over-year jump in revenue. Even with Ohio State handling Texas at home (game happened on August 30), sportsbooks still cleaned up — raking in $72.7 million on an impressive 11 percent hold.
Online betting, as usual, did the heavy lifting. Mobile wagers accounted for more than $651 million of the total handle and nearly all of the $70.7 million in taxable revenue. That left retail sportsbooks to pull their weight in a smaller, but still notable, fashion. This performance is par the course across the whole country where apps dominate.
Still, in-person betting showed signs of life again, bouncing 16 percent up from July when handle didn’t even crack $10 million. August brought that number back up — and with it, $1.9 million in retail revenue. That’s a solid rebound and roughly in line with where things stood a year ago.
All told, the Buckeye State’s books sent $14.5 million to state coffers for the month. For a young market, Ohio continues to punch above its weight — and heading into football season, these numbers could be just the warm-up act. More on that soon, but let’s look at the state of the top betting apps.
Who Leads Ohio Betting Market?
Alright, so who’s winning most from this until now? Probably not the bettors, given the hold percentage we mentioned just now. State tax collectors, sure, but more the sportsbooks.
Out of all the licensed operators, DraftKings is quite literally king. They once again took the top spot in Ohio for total bets placed, pulling in more than $218 million in wagers. But when it came to actual profit, FanDuel edged them out. Thanks to an 11.9 percent hold on a $207.6 million handle, FanDuel’s August revenue narrowly beat DraftKings — with both operators clearing over $24 million in profit, a solid jump from July’s totals.
In third, bet365 continued to quietly rack up wins. The UK-based book pulled $58.7 million in handle and converted that into $5.6 million in revenue — not a bad margin for a mid-tier operator competing with the industry’s giants. BetMGM wasn’t far behind, seeing $43.6 million in wagers and around a $600,000 month-over-month bump in revenue. Fanatics Sportsbook rounded out the top five, turning $36.8 million in wagers into $3.7 million in profit as its presence in the market keeps growing.
Lower on the list, Caesars managed to edge out ESPN BET in total handle with $23.4 million wagered, though ESPN BET squeezed out more profit behind a sharper 10.9 percent hold. Hard Rock Bet and Prime Sportsbook also crossed the $10 million threshold in wagers, but not everyone came out ahead — Prime actually ended the month in the red.
Overall, Ohio’s leaderboard looks stable but competitive. FanDuel and DraftKings remain in their usual arms race, bet365 is holding its own, and the second tier — led by Fanatics, Caesars, and ESPN BET — is still jockeying for position.
Football Season Will Set New Records
Ohio reports its betting numbers with a lag so we won’t know September — the first full month of NFL and college football betting — for a bit. But let’s be real, we should expect record-setting numbers. If not in September, then October or November.
The Buckeyes continues to roll through the football season so that’s surely gonna be helping out. Yes, the Browns and Bengals are hot and cold so far, but Ohio fans are not fickle with their fandom or betting interest. The current record for betting toll was set in January of this year. That’s when the state hit the billion-dollar mark.
We’d be shocked if Ohio doesn’t hit a billion at least once this football season. Hell, we think they can do it multiple times. We’ll monitor the betting numbers and report the revenues as we get them so be sure to check back routinely.
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