CINCINNATI — Ninety different sportsbooks oversaw $11 billion in betting activity in Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana last year. For every $100 wagered, the sportsbooks kept $11.37 for themselves.
But they didn’t share that money equally.
Hollywood Casino in Lawrenceburg, for example, retained less than 2% of the money bet in its retail sportsbook. FC Cincinnati’s short-lived sportsbook at Taft’s Ale House kept more than 24% before the OTR restaurant closed in August.
It’s what the industry calls a hold percentage, the money left over when all bets are settled. And it’s one indication of how friendly a sportsbook is for bettors.
“We’re seeing a higher hold percentage across the industry because sportsbooks are offering and promoting high-hold bets,” said Jason Logan, senior betting analyst for Covers.com. “These same-game parlays, bet a little to win a lot type things, that’s what they’re pushing. But for every $100,000 ticket you see promoted online, you have thousands of other parlays that are not winning.”
And that’s why the WCPO 9 I-Team calculated the hold percentage for every retail and online sportsbook that operated in the three states surrounding Cincinnati last year.
The list includes 46 online or mobile sportsbooks like FanDuel and DraftKings and 39 brick-and-mortar locations like downtown’s Hard Rock casino. It also includes five companies that operate retail kiosks at bars and restaurants throughout Ohio.
The data shows hold percentages vary widely from month to month. The same company, offering the same bets in Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana, can have different hold percentages in all three states. That's because sportsbook revenue depends on betting results. And those results can be influenced by promotional spending, what kinds of bets are the most popular and whether local teams are covering the spread.
By way of definition, the higher the hold percentage, the less money bettors get back in their pockets.
In general, online sportsbooks had higher holds than retail locations in 2023 and Indiana sportsbooks returned more cash to bettors than their counterparts in Ohio and Kentucky.
“I think this is the place to come gamble,” said Jeff Bond, a Harrison resident who visited Hollywood Casino in Lawrenceburg this week.
Bond uses the Caesars app in Ohio to place most of his bets because it gives him reward points on trips to Las Vegas. But he might reconsider that approach based on the hold percentages he learned from the I-Team’s data. Hollywood’s retail sportsbook had a hold rate of 1.8%, lower than 7.6% hold rate in the Ohio Caesars app.
“Your odds aren’t very good anyway,” Bond said. “But I guess if you’re going to play, you might as well play in the place that pays more.”
Indiana sportsbooks had an average hold rate of 9.3% last year, compared to 12.4% in Ohio and 16.5% in Kentucky.
Logan said that’s because Indiana launched its sports betting market in 2019, while Ohio launched last January and Kentucky debuted in September.
“Usually when they do a launch in a new state like that, they’ll offer a lot of sign-up bonuses,” Logan said. “You have a lot of people that are trying sports betting for the first time. And they don’t necessarily have healthy betting habits.”
Single-game bets, which are the easiest to win, typically result in hold rates of 5%, Logan said. But more exotic parlay bets can boost holds above 15%.
“In today’s sports betting climate, (with) a lot more recreational bettors, they are pushing those high-yield things,” Logan said. “It’s the same as if a restaurant would push a high-yield burger or something like that. ‘Oh, put bacon and guacamole on your sub.’ They push those things that don’t cost them a lot but will make them a lot of money.”
Logan said sportsbooks run the risk of burning out bettors with parlays that boost their profits but leave customers frustrated. And bettors can reduce their risk by researching bets, shopping for the best betting lines and being skeptical of promoted parlays.
“Sportsbooks are very aggressive, pushing things like same-game parlays, parlay boosts and bets that are kind of a lottery ticket,” Logan said. “And if you’re fine with that, and that’s kind of what you’re looking to bet, that’s good. I would just say, keep it small.”
