Betway Leaving Ohio Sports Betting Market

The Ohio sports betting market is about to lose one of its operators.

Super Group, a global online sports betting and gaming company, announced on Wednesday that they will be shuddering their Betway sportsbook amid profitability concerns. The decision will leave one fewer online sportsbook in Ohio. And rest assured, the Buckeye State isn’t the only market being impacted.

Betway is operational in a handful of states. That means a bunch of markets will be down one online sportsbook. And for the time being, it isn’t clear how any of them will handle it. Many believe most regions will just let Betway leave without replacing them. The Ohio sports betting market, specifically, has another 18 online sportsbooks up and running. They don’t necessarily need to offset Betway’s exit by offering up another license.

Then again, the fees and taxes associated with each Ohio sports betting license can be quite lucrative. So, there’s a chance the Buckeye State and other markets will open up the application process to interested parties.

Of course, this presumes there is intrigue among other online sportsbooks operating in the United States. The Betway news isn’t turning heads just because it impacts Ohio sports betting. Their shuddering doubles as a commentary on the sports betting industry in the USA as we enter the second half of 2024.

Why, exactly, Super Group making this call now? Which markets will be most impacted? And most importantly, what does all of this say about the status of online sports betting in the United States?

Why is Betway Leaving the Ohio Sports Betting Market?

The answer to this question can be encapsulated using one word: money. Pat Evans provided more details on the decision for Legal Sports Report:

“Super Group CEO Neal Menashe said the decision comes following an extensive review period discussed at its last earnings call in March. While Super Group will wind down its US sports betting business, it will remain active in online casinos with Spin. The online casino is live in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, and Menashe said it would expand with the right opportunities. ‘At present, we don’t see a long-term path to profitability for the sportsbook product,’ Menashe said in a release.”

This announcement from Betway will wind up affecting nine states. Here’s the full list of markets that will be impacted by the decision:

Arizona
Colorado
Illinois
Indiana
Louisiana
New Jersey
Ohio
Pennsylvania
Virginia

Like Evans noted, online casinos in Pennsylvania and online casinos in New Jersey will remain operational. Super Group is also expected to continue broadening their footprint throughout the United States as more places open up their iGaming laws.

This won’t mean much to sports bettors in the United States who like to wager with a variety of different operators. Betway’s shuddering is an extension of a growing trend this year. More and more online sportsbooks in the USA appear to be closing up shop. Heck, Betway wasn’t even the only mobile betting site to announce a closure this week. SaharaBets announced on Tuesday that they’d be discontinuing their services for sports betting in Arizona.

Meanwhile, a handful of other mobile betting sites in the United States have done the same over the past year or so. Most of them have cited profitability issues on their way out. This, in turn, raises another question: Why are online operators struggling to gain a foothold in popular places like the Ohio sports betting market?

The United States Online Sports Betting Market Continues to be Dominated by a Small Click

As iGaming’s Nicole Macedo noted, an increasing number of online betting sites in the USA are closing down because they can’t compete with the Big Three.

“The US betting market has started to shrink as operators grapple with the likes of FanDuel, DraftKings and BetMGM as leading brands with significant market shares,” she wrote. “Super Group [and SaharaBets] joins Kindred, Tipico and 888 in exiting the challenging region via various channels.”

This struggle for non-flagship online operators is abundantly clear in the Ohio sports betting market. Consider the most recent Ohio sports betting handle report, which provided data from the month of May. The Buckeye State churned out a total online sports betting handle of $595.2 million. FanDuel, DraftKings and BetMGM accounted for roughly 75 percent of this business. That is an overwhelming share.

What’s more, this monopolization of Ohio sports betting options isn’t as stark as it gets. Not even close. Other markets will see the Big Three clear 80 percent, 85 percent, 90 percent or more of their online sports betting handle. That type of dominance can be tough to reconcile for competitors. And it’s why we've had so many sportsbooks shut down over the past couple of years.

Complicated still, we’re not just talking about start-ups or mom-and-pop operators. Betway has been around the international sports betting scene for a while. And Penn Entertainment, a veteran company, needed to ditch their Barstool branded sportsbook in favor of an ESPN branded option. All in all, the pursuit of a meaningful market share in Ohio and across the country is difficult to amass. That could prove prohibitive down the line, not just to new market entrants, but even current sportsbooks who don’t think they’re capable of competing with the Big Three long term.

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