OHIO SPORTS BETTING WILL BE COMING IN THE YEAR 2023 OR SOONER

A few days ago, legislation for Ohio sports betting, HB 29, passed in the state legislature. As a result, Ohio sports betting will commence on January 1st, 2023 or potentially earlier.

Legislation HB 29 faced an almost four hour delay before it was passed. It was favorably reported in under five minutes by the conference committee. Then, it took less than ten minutes for the conference report to be accepted on the floor of the Ohio state Senate.

Later in the afternoon, the Ohio state House passed the bill. Now, the state of the legislation is in the hands of Ohio Governor Mike DeWine. However, Governor DeWine has been vocal about his support of legal Ohio sports betting. The amended bill HB 29 is now 225 pages long.

However, a synopsis of the amendments in the bill that have been agreed upon by the conference committee has been uploaded by the Ohio Legislative Service Commission. Mobile sports betting has been a major point of negotiation that has caused the issue to be prolonged for months. In the original bill, sports teams and leagues would only get one skin each, but racinos and casinos would be able to operate two.

The bill as it stands now allows sports leagues and teams as well as racinos and casinos to launch one skin each and have a chance at a second skin. The second skin would be able to be launched if the licensee is able to prove it will have an incremental economical benefit to Ohio. The bill also allows for twenty five mobile licensees, but only if the applicants can demonstrate a need in the state for more online sportsbooks.

An applicant that is approved for a license after those initial twenty five would only receive one skin. The rate of taxation in the bill did not change in the amended version. Sports betting revenue is set to be taxed at a rate of 10%.

Other than the updates to mobile betting, there have been other changes to HB 29. Some of these changes are:

• No requirement for dictated rules about the size and cost of retail sportsbooks from the Ohio Casino Control Commission. This information will be taken from the applicants themselves.
• Mobile as well as retail betting licenses will be running for five years instead of three as originally laid out.
• A lottery retailer who is eligible and recommended by the State Lottery Commission that wants to host a sports betting kiosk needs to be approved. This no longer caps the amount of retailers who can host the kiosks at twenty as they were originally.
• Wagerers have a limit of $700 a week in bets at lottery kiosks.
• For live betting, official league data is no longer needed.
• These lottery kiosks are able to accept bets on the spread, moneyline and the over/under, plus parlays of two-to-four bets.
• Ohio sports betting needs to start by January 1st, 2023, however it can start earlier on a date that is decided by the regulator.
• Through June 30th, 2023, provisional gaming licenses can be granted.
• Negative revenue from operators cannot be carried forward for tax purposes.
• A provision that would have allowed sportsbooks to offer horse race betting has been removed.
• Esports betting on a professional level has been included in the bill.

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