Sports bettors in Ohio received some unfortunate news this week.
Online sportsbooks won’t be launching sooner than the upcoming football season, instead they will be launching around Christmas. Ohio legalized sports betting in 2021, with a required start date of January 1, 2023.
There was some hope among the industry and the sports betting community that regulators in Ohio would expedite the launch, but that didn’t happen. Ohio is one of 35 states that have legal sports betting.
According to a report from Wcpo.comOhio Casino Control Commission CEO Matt Schuller said Wednesday that there is still a lot of work to be done.
“For all those interested, they should expect it to be very soon – if not on – January 1,” spokeswoman Jessica Franks said, according to the report. “We are expecting close to 3,000[licensing requests]to arrive. We will need to do all these investigations to get those licenses issued and then make sure they comply with all the rules and regulations. We will need all that time until January.”
Ohio will have up to 25 sports books online and up to 40 sports books for retail.
