Ohio was the busiest regulated market in the US over the New Year’s holiday weekend, with the state recording 11.3 million geolocation transactions across January 1 and 2, according to GeoComply.
Legal sports wagering launched in Ohio at midnight on January 1, with FanDuel, BetMGM DraftKings, Bet365, Tipico, Betr and Prophet among the brands that went live on opening day.
Across the first two days of Ohio’s regulated market, GeoComply recorded 11.3 million geolocation transactions from 783,863 unique accounts, in a state with a population of 11.8 million people.
This was more than 9.3 million transactions in New York, which has a much larger population of 19.8 million, as well as in other established markets such as Pennsylvania with 8.2 million transactions, New Jersey on 6.7 million and Michigan on 5.8 million.
Ohio was also comfortably ahead of neighboring states including both Pennsylvania and Michigan, as well Indiana with 2.4 million transactions and West Virginia with 800,000.
GeoComply said Cincinnati was the busiest city in Ohio across the two opening days with 1.9 million transactions, ahead of Columbus with 1.0m transactions and Cleveland on 772,000.
In addition, GeoComply noted that 234,000 transactions were recorded during the first hour of legal betting in the state on New Year’s Day.
“As expected, residents of the Buckeye State enthusiastically greeted the market at the moment the calendar changed over to 2023,” GeoComply’s senior vice president of compliance Lindsay Slader said.
“Today, about 44% 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.”