Effects of Ohio’s College Prop Bet Ban Seen

By Matt Speakman,
Betting Expert at online-gambling.com

Matt Speakman Betting Expert at online-gambling.com

A die-hard fan of the Patriots, Matt Speakman is an expert on everything related to sports betting and DFS sites. Over the years, he has proven a valuable asset for our team at online-gambling.com. You can find Speakman's professional tips and tricks in any of his many articles on the website.

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Last updated: May 4, 2024

Slightly more than a year since Ohio introduced sports betting, the gambling vertical has shown promising revenue numbers consistently. However, one hiccup has threatened the amount of bets that can be made, which is Ohio’s recent ban on college prop bets.

Ohio introduced legalized sports betting at the start of 2023, but in March 2024, college prop bets became illegal. The ban came into effect on the 1st of March. Now that March 2024 revenue figures are available, it is possible to see what the effect of the prop bet ban has been so far.

A look at the numbers

The main figure that is of interest for those following Ohio’s recent college prop bet ban is 3.8%: that is the amount that sports betting revenue dropped between February to March 2024, marking the shift of the ban on March 1st.

February’s total revenue was $66.3 million while March’s revenue was $63.8 million. Differences like this can be hard to put into perspective when dealing with such high numbers, but 3.8% is not an insignificant sum, especially when viewed at such a scale. The effects have surely been felt throughout the industry, which is likely trying to find a way to respond to this disheartening decline.

Year-on-year analysis

Interestingly, March 2024’s bets not only fell short of expectations for this year, but they also registered a significant decline in year-on-year figures. Compared to bets taken in March 2023, revenue this March was reduced by 33.1%.

Obviously, this difference cannot only be attributed to the prop bet ban. In March 2023, revenue was reported at $95.3 million. Since this was only the third month of legal sports betting for the state, perhaps the reason was more to do with the novelty of the market at that stage.

Not only were Ohioans experiencing the excitement of newly getting access to the legal market, but sportsbooks also likely offered considerate bonus options and other promotions in order to entice new customers to sign up. Perhaps it was new offerings that encouraged so many bettors to entrust their money to sportsbooks in early 2023, and the excitement of the legal market has naturally dwindled since.

Overall increase in betting handle

Another aspect to take into consideration is this: Ohio’s overall handle in March 2024 was $808.2 million. In February 2024, it was $671.1 million. This is a great increase from February to March which could indicate a healthy market and growth rate. In this case, it is possible that bettors are simply getting smarter — and luckier — and raking in more earnings. Meanwhile, perhaps sportsbooks must look at cutting down their bottom line in operations.

It is also likely that NCAA Division 1 basketball was one of the biggest reasons that bettors placed more bets in March 2024, despite the prop bet ban. Thankfully, there are still other bets that customers have available.

March 2024’s handle was not only higher than that of February 2024, but it also was an increase on handle in March 2023, which was only $737.2 million, or 9.6% less.