The Ohio sports betting market demonstrated its massive potential during Super Bowl LVII, leading the U.S. in unique sportsbook accounts and ranking second only to New York in geolocation checks.
Internet security company GeoComply verifies user locations when bettors log on to use a sportsbook. The company performed over 100 million geolocation checks on Saturday and Sunday, a 25% increase over last year.
“Super Bowl LVII was a record-breaking event,” GeoComply Co-Founder & CEO Anna Sainsbury said. “GeoComply data reveals that Americans’ interest in legally betting on the Super Bowl has never been higher.”
Ohio sports betting kicked off on Jan. 1. The state is expected to rank among the biggest in the U.S., and this year’s Super Bowl betting shows that it is off to a fast start.
Ohio sports betting market posts huge Super Bowl numbers
GeoComply registered 7.4 million accounts over Super Bowl weekend, a 32% increase over last year. The total number of Super Bowl geolocation checks was up 25% to 100 million.
Ohio, Arkansas, Kansas and Maryland have all legalized sports betting since last year’s Super Bowl.
Ohio far outpaced these new markets and several that are more mature, slotting in just behind New York with 12.6 million geolocation checks on Sunday.
Ohio actually topped New York with 1.1 million unique accounts. New York was second with 851,000, followed by Pennsylvania (793,000), New Jersey (660,000) and Michigan (575,000).
Ohio’s sports betting market is showing signs of its immense potential even in its early weeks.
During the NFL playoffs from Jan. 14-29, Ohio was No. 1 in the U.S. with more than 87 million transactions. New York was second with 72 million, followed by Pennsylvania with 65 million.
According to PlayOhio projections, Ohio will rank among the biggest sports betting markets in the U.S. in Year 1.
Here’s where Ohio geolocation checks happened
Every time a user logs onto an Ohio sportsbook, their location is checked and verified.
Here’s where the millions of Ohio verifications took place from Saturday though the end of the Super Bowl. The red dots represent users who were denied access to a sportsbook because they were either located out of state or could not be precisely located.
Kentuckians bet on the Super Bowl in Ohio too
So far, the Cincinnati area has seen a considerable number of Kentuckians crossing the border to utilize Ohio sportsbooks. Kentucky is the only state neighboring Ohio that does not offer legal sports betting.
In January, 2,042 unique accounts were detected to have physically crossed the border into Ohio around 7,700 times.
GeoComply did not break down the number of Kentuckians who bet on the Super Bowl in Ohio, but the geolocation rejections near Cincinnati show that many were trying. Anyone who made the trip over the Ohio River was likely able to successfully place their bets.
Last month, GeoComply found that over 2,000 sportsbook usernames were geolocated in Ohio shortly after being geolocated in Kentucky.
“Ohio is profiting from Kentuckians who prefer to wager in a legal market rather than the black market,” the company said.