Ohio Could Turn to Esports to Help Push Legal Sports Betting

Dave Schwab Sports Betting Expert

3 minute read

The effort to legalize sports betting in Ohio will once again be a hot topic in the next legislative session. State lawmakers failed to move a few proposals through the process this year. However, support for legal sports betting is still strong.

State Senator Kirk Schuring is leading the new effort heading into 2022. He has introduced a bill that would expand legal sports betting in Ohio as compared to previous proposals. His plan calls for 40 licenses at an initial cost of $1 million apiece.

That fee would be cut to $500,000 for the second and third year in operation. Half of those licenses would be made available for in-state casinos. This list would also include any other existing land-based gaming establishments in the state.

The other 20 licenses would be earmarked for online sports betting. However, these licensees would also have to operate a retail sportsbook at a land-based location.

An interesting provision in Senator Schuring’s bill covers the online sports betting aspect. A licensee in the state would be able to form an unlimited number of partnerships with online sportsbook operators. This would open up the entire market and make it more competitive.

Another important aspect of this proposal is the expansion of available betting sports in Ohio. One example given was legal betting on esports.

Two executives from that industry recently presented their case to the Ohio Senate. Dan Marks is the chief financial officer at the Esports Entertainment Group (EEG). This is a publicly traded company that promotes esports as well as online gambling. Jeff Cohen is the vice president of strategy.

The duo presented ideas on how Ohio could benefit from legalized betting on esports. They mentioned that the company has just formed a partnership with the NBA’s Cleveland Cavaliers to help promote EEG’s expansion plans.

EEG also has plans to build several Helix Centers in Ohio to help promote esports. The company would love to bring Vie to the state. This is the brand name behind EEG’s esports betting platform.

Grant Johnson is the CEO at EEG. He released the following statement in conjunction with his company’s plans for Ohio:

“We believe that Ohio can form a model for innovation and investment in esports that other states will follow.”

One of the company’s primary goals is to grow and expand the esports community along with professional video gaming. It views Ohio as the perfect test market to fuel its vision for national expansion.

The main issue dogging legal betting on esports in certain markets is the age of participants. In many professional competitions, a few of the players are younger than 18. This is something to watch in Ohio if Senator Schuring’s bill gains any traction.

Written by Dave Schwab, our US Sports Betting Industry Expert. You can learn more about our author's expertise here.

Dave Schwab

Dave Schwab has been covering the sports betting industry for the past 12 years as the main focus of his specialty marketing company for online content. This endeavor followed a previous career in the field of sales and marketing in the wholesaling sector.Most of his weekly pieces focus on the rapidly expanding legal US sports betting industry. However, he still does extensive work covering betting angles that can provide a competitive edge to avid players. Dave believes that it is always a challenge to take past results and current form to try and correctly determine a future result. Sports brings out the unpredictability in what should be a fairly predictable outcome based on the stats, facts and recent trends in a particular matchup. More from Dave Schwab