Ohio Sports Betting Surged During Winter Olympics

The 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan-Cortina were expected to provide a boost to the Ohio sports betting market. Now that some of the data from the games is trickling out, it’s clear people underestimated the impact.

And you better believe experts are now taking that into account ahead of the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.

To be sure, we are still waiting on the final Ohio sports betting handle numbers for the period in which the Winter Olympics took place. The games spilled into February, and these reports typically run six-to-nine-weeks behind.

Still, according to Alex Semancik of Ohio Today, gambling experts are bracing for record volume because of the meteoric rise in Olympics viewers.

“Whether it was to contemplate the quirky game of curling, watch electrifying skiers and snowboarders take to the air or witness USA women’s and men’s hockey bring home the gold, the Milan Cortina Winter Olympic Games drew the most U.S. viewers in more than a decade,” he writes. “The recent Winter Olympics averaged 23.5 million American viewers daily making them the most-watched by a U.S. audience since 2014.”

Plenty of different factors are being cited as people attempt to explain this increase. And as it turns, the heightened increase in event outcomes that accompanies online sports betting in the United States may be the primary driving force.

Ohio Sports Betting Volume Directly Contributed to Olympics Viewership

As part of his piece for Ohio Today, Semancik speaks with Ohio University Professor of Sports Administration Jim Strode. Mr. Strode has become increasingly known in Ohio sports betting circles after his deep dive into the “influence of bettor behavior and bias in sports gambling markets.” It is his belief that the spike in Olympics viewership can be traced back to sports betting.

“It’s not surprising that we’re seeing this spike in the United States because of the 38 states that have legalized sports gambling, plus Washington D.C.,” Professor Strode tells Semancik. “It is certainly creating more eyes toward the Olympic Games, because if people have money on the line that’s creating more eyeballs on the television with people watching the games.”

We don’t have to wait for February data on sports betting in Ohio for proof of concept. We already received it during the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris.

The volume of wagers significantly rose throughout the three weeks in question. Not surprisingly, this also happened to coincide with an overall uptick in viewership.

Granted, this impact is slightly harder to track. The 2024 Summer Olympics began at the end of July and trickled into the middle of August. For argument’s sake, let’s look at just the August 2024 Ohio sports betting handle. The Buckeye State took in $543.1 million in total wagers. That represents a 44.8 percent increase from August 2023, when there was no Olympics. That is a monster increase, particularly when you consider the Paris Games ended on August 11—less than halfway into the month.

Experts Expect More Record-Breaking Volume During the 2028 Summer Olympics

Expectations are being adjusted accordingly ahead of the 2028 Summer Olympics in California. This will be counterintuitive to some. People spend more time outdoors in the summer. That, in theory, renders them less likely to glue themselves to a screen and watch anything.

Although this logic might hold to some extent, the Summer Olympics offset any potential free-time-indoors difference with the volume of events. The Los Angeles Games will have more than three times the number of competitions during its three-week span. The sheer number of opportunities to bet should culminate in even more activity.

“When you’re turning on the television prime time, you’re seeing a live sporting event, so that might entice more folks to open up their betting apps,” Professor Strode explains to Semancik. “The betting apps are going to be pushing out notifications for those live events.”

Ohio in Particular Could be Headed Toward a Major Olympics Betting Boom

Every state stands to benefit from the Summer Olympics in 2028. Given the Ohio sports betting growth trajectory, though, The Buckeye State may be speeding toward a bigger explosion than most.

This past August, residents wagered $663.2 million. That is a 22 percent increase over 2024—when the Summer Olympics took place. Enjoying this leap at that point in the sports calendar, without The Games, is a big deal. August is a time when there is no NBA or NHL to bet on, and when betting on the NFL has yet to ramp up.

This increase does not prove that the 2024 Summer Olympics were, in fact, a dud. As we noted before, Ohio sports betting still saw a massive year-over-year increase. They don’t get a 40 percent bump without the appeal of those games.

Instead, this is more about the normalization of sports betting. It continues to be more of a mainstream activity with each passing year. Access via mobile apps has never been easier. Promotions during live sporting events are more frequent than before.

Until that changes, Ohio sports betting will remain a growth industry. And if they are already clearing a handle amassed in part because of the last Summer Olympics, just think of how much volume the state will do during the next one.

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