CLEVELAND, Ohio – Come Sunday, Jan. 1, a new world will open to sports enthusiasts in Ohio. Gambling, that quintessential American avocation that has pulled itself above its once seedy reputation and which continues to enjoy its niche as entertainment, is starting legally.
And if the last time you bet was a trip to Las Vegas when you just knew Bernie Kosar could help the Browns beat the spread (if not win the game), then you’re in for a few changes.
Wagering has become more involved, and it’s not because of the gamblers or the sports. It’s because of technology and creativity.
The pace of real-time life through technology allows wagers to be placed before and during games. And bookmakers have opened multiple-game wagers in many ways.
We spoke with Bob Wankel, director of performance media services at XLMedia, which has a partnership with cleveland.com, and Adam Suliman, senior vice president of sports and digital gaming of Jack Entertainment, to guide us. Here’s a primer to help navigate the world of wagering:
When legal gambling opens in Ohio, bettors will have the option of wagering via apps and other options.
What is the minimum age to bet?
Determined by state. In most – like Ohio – you have to be 21.
Which sports will be available to bet in Ohio?
With so many options ready to open in Ohio – either via apps, kiosks or brick-and-mortar – the question really should be what can’t you bet on. Wankel, based in New Jersey, says expect all four major sports – NFL, Major League Baseball, NBA and NHL – in addition to professional soccer, European and other leagues, Australian Rules football, boxing, cricket, golf, Tour de France, rugby, handball, mixed-martial arts and more. In New Jersey, he said, people can even bet on professional darts. Expect Ohio to be market-standard in this regard. Wager-eligible sports, along with nuances and betting regulation, fall under the Ohio Casino Control Commission, said Suliman, based in Cleveland. “It’s a pretty broad list,” he said.
What types of wagers will be available?
This is where the fun is. Bettors can choose between individual games with a point spread or moneyline, player propositions, in-game wagers and parlays (we’ll get to those in a minute):
• A point spread is the amount one team is favored to win by. So if Buffalo is listed as -4.5, they are favored to beat Miami by at least 5 points. If Miami is listed as +4.5, they can lose the game by fewer than 5 points, and anyone who bet on them wins. If the favored team scores more than the point spread, they are said to have covered the spread.
• The over-under is a predetermined predicted number of points for both teams to score. If Cleveland and New England play, and you think the final score will be something like 21-10, and the over-under is 40, bet the under. If the teams then combine to score fewer than 40, you win. If the final score turns out to be 38-35, they went over - and you lose.
• A moneyline allows gamblers to choose a team to win outright. A moneyline “removes the points from the equation,” Wankel said. “You simply pay more money for the favorite, and you would make more money on the backside if you take the underdog.” So if the moneyline is -135, that means you have to risk $135 to win $100. A recent game had the 10-3 playoff-bound Kansas City Chiefs favored by 14 points against a 1-11-1 Houston team. The moneyline on the Chiefs was -900. The Texans were +600.
• Player propositions allow for wagers on specific players, occurrences or achievements. Will Aaron Rodgers throw for 260 yards in his next game? Will Deshaun Watson throw a touchdown Sunday? How many sacks will the defense get? “You can select dozens and dozens of ‘markets’ within the same game, and build together these same-game parlays, which have become extremely popular,” Wankel said.
Sports betting is now legal in Ohio. Bets can be placed at sportsbooks, including DraftKings Ohio Sportsbook, BetMGM Ohio, Fan Duel Ohio, Barstool Ohio, Caesars Ohio, Bet365, PointsBet and Tipico.
• In-game, or micro, bets are real-time wagers that did not exist years ago. “Micro-betting basically is in-game live betting on short-term outcomes,” Wankel said. “Let’s say I don’t want to sit down tonight for three hours. I have $25, and I don’t want to watch the entire game; I just want a more immediate outcome. You can bet on the first quarter. But you can go even smaller. Right before a play unfolds, I can bet on an immediate outcome. Will the next pass be complete or incomplete? Will this drive cross the 50-yard-line? In baseball, will the next pitch be a ball, a strike, a foul ball or will it be put in play? That can be fun and an interesting way to watch a game. Have you ever sat down and watched a game and said, ‘I know this guy is going to get a hit here’ or ‘I know that they are going to hit this over the middle for a 25-yard gain?’ If you’re this type of person, you can play that on certain apps now - which is fun, but can be problematic as well.”
Added Suliman: “I think what it does is it helps customers find those smaller ‘markets’ within the game. You’re watching it, the second half is coming up, you say, ‘Man, I’ve got a good feeling my Browns are going to pull this off.’ You can place a wager just on the second half or even just the third quarter. It certainly has evolved quite a bit.”
But Suliman noted how odds can, and should, change during a game. If you are going to bet whether Nick Chubb is going to score a touchdown on the next play, and it’s third and inches from the 1-yard-line, odds are fairly likely the Browns will hand it off to him.
“The information that would determine the risks associated with those wagers is coming in so fast because those markets are micromarkets,” he said, “Now thanks to data connections with the leagues and others, we’re able to price those markets very accurately and very quickly.”
Years ago, odds were set in stone in the morning. Now, Suliman said, “The tech that we’ve deployed here in the state of Ohio allows us to be much more nimble when it comes to pricing these games, and we think that’s a lot more fun for customers because it allows us to offer more markets.”
Microbetting, or in-game wagers, will be allowed.
OK, tell me about parlays.
A parlay is when you bundle several wagers into one bet. They are very tempting and popular.
Take three NBA games as an example. Say you think Cleveland can win their game by the spread of 5.5 points. And you believe Atlanta can cover 6.5 in their game. But you think the San Antonio Spurs – favored to lose by 7.5 points - can beat the spread. You can bet the games individually, but if you bundle them together you can bet them as one collective wager.
Plus side: Parlay odds pay off at a greater amount. Downside? If you miss one game, you lose the parlay.
Here’s the interesting thing. Years ago, within legal betting circles, you were not allowed to mix and match. Many books did not allow you to go out of a league, so you couldn’t even mix NFL and college football games. Now? You can choose most anything you want. The more “legs” – games, proposition wagers, whatever – you choose, the higher the payoff. But remember: “If you lose one, the whole thing washes,” Wankel said.
Wankel said a standard example would be this: You can bet three games at -110 odds individually. But together, that trio of games in a parlay would bring the odds to +595. That means risking $100 to win $595. If you add a fourth wager to the bundle, the odds can go to +1228. But odds can change drastically because some wagers allow flexibility.
“You can do so much more, and you have so much more optionality within your wagers,” Wankel said.
“That’s a huge part of what has made sports betting so popular in the United States,” Suliman said about allowing bettors to create parlays.
“Folks really have a lot more flexibility in what they can wager on when it comes to parlays, and not only pregame parlays – betting the Cavaliers to win, the Browns to win, and the Guardians to win the World Series next year, you can parlay something like that now where you couldn’t 20 or 30 ago.”
Also, Jack Entertainment offers an expanded, same-game parlay, Suliman said. “So now I am betting not only the Browns to win, but also Nick Chubb to score the first touchdown and also three field goals in the game. I can build that parlay within the mobile application, and it will price automatically. It makes for a fun combination, and you can also see some pretty high returns on those bets. Obviously, the risk is higher.”
Another option, Suliman said, is the chance to cash out a parlay before all of the games are finished. This isn’t offered everywhere, and it’s intriguing. It allows a quit-while-you’re-ahead type of empowerment.
“It’s relatively new in the United States, and allows customers to cash their bets out,” he said. “Let’s say you’re in that 14-leg parlay. And you’ve guessed five of the 14 games, right? But you’re not feeling good about the rest of the games. You can cash that out. And so you can take some money off the table, sort of mid-bet. Not every wager is eligible for the cash-out option, but a lot of them are.”
By the way, the likelihood of hitting, say, a 10-leg parlay is very low – remember, you have to win every market - but a dollar bet can yield a couple hundred bucks.
Sometimes there’s a half point in betting lines. No one scores a half point! Why is that?
To avoid ties, called a “push” in betting terminology. If a team is favored by 6 and wins 27-21, no one wins. We can’t have that, right? This is America. So oddsmakers will build in a half point. If the team that is favored by 5.5 points wins 27-22, they did not cover the spread, so the underdog wins. But whole numbers will be used occasionally. A tie results in “no harm, no foul - free entertainment, as I call it,” Wankel said.
What does OFF mean?
When creating a line, bookmakers study many variables. Sometimes a wrench gets thrown into the calculations, and bookmakers will not offer the game, or they will take it off from wagering. Games with “OFF” – meaning, “off the board” - cannot be bet. This happens when one team, say, is a heavy favorite and loses a key player, resulting in a potentially different outcome. Or if a game is going to be played in a catastrophic snowstorm. Sometimes, the game is off from the beginning. Other times it can be pulled off – but the wagers placed up to that point still count. And other times it can be moved off momentarily, while operators determine how to shift the line.
Sound advice: Learn about sports wagering and always bet within your means.
What is this about a tax on wagers?
Again, this is America, right? Almost everything is taxable. Standard is -110, Wankel said, so on a loss you are going to pay that. So if you want to risk $100 you actually are risking $110. That amount can change. Bookmakers can slant the tax to one side if there is added “action” – more money – being bet on one team. That means expect to see it go to -115 on occasion.
“We put these products out there, we take risks on these products, and there is a small profit margin,” Suliman said. While it typically will be -110, it might even vary to -105 or -120, depending on the wagering market, he added.
Is there a minimum and maximum to bet?
Usual standard minimum is 10 cents, Wankel said. Maximum amounts will vary.
How popular a game is can determine the maximum amount wagered, Suliman added.
“The minimums we’re less concerned about, but certainly there are maximums, and it varies by market. There are certain types of wagering markets that are very robust, they’re highly liquid, like an NFL Sunday or a Monday Night Football game - there’s a lot of wagers in the system. So we can take a little bit more than we would on say, you know, a tennis match – there’s less information available about that particular match then there would be about a Monday Night Football game.” Betting limits offer “risk mitigation,” he said.
Will any teams be restricted for Ohioans?
Suliman said wagers can be taken on collegiate in-state schools in Ohio. In New Jersey, Wankel cannot bet on state schools in the state. “If I go across the bridge in Pennsylvania, I cannot bet on Princeton-Rutgers.” They are trying to create “distance” between players on a court, say, and the action on a game, Wankel said. To what degree that helps regulate the industry remains to be seen. In Ohio, wagering on in-state schools is allowed. (This allowance has a potentially huge ramification in January. Ohio State will play in a semifinal college-football playoff game against Georgia on Dec. 31. If they win, the Buckeyes would play in the national championship on Monday, Jan. 9, against either Michigan or TCU. Expect a lot of money to land on that game in the Buckeye State.)
Who sets betting lines?
The notion that only a handful of cigar-chomping guys holed up in a room studying variables of a couple of teams before laying down the odds is passé. “It varies a little bit,” Wankel said.
“Generally speaking, there are companies that run these odds in real time because it is so advanced and it is so tech-dependent, so there’s actually sports-book odds companies that supply these odds to the sports books.”
But “a human element” exists, he said. Professional oddsmakers do come in and set initial lines. But fluctuations and prices are done on a technical side, he said.
Suliman expanded on that: “There’s still a bit of an art to this. The amount of data to trade the markets, it’s so much more robust now than before. We have live data streams coming in at all times. You really need to build models. I wouldn’t call it AI, but you have to digest that data and make risk decisions and trading decisions.
“But there’s also the human element. And there are certainly a lot of traders who we have focused on this every day, saying, ‘Hey, does that make sense? We see the data coming in, but is that right? Because the betting market, the folks who are betting on the game, are telling us that isn’t right.’ And so they need to make some sort of risk decision.”
From individual games to parlays and more, bettors will have multiple wagering options available to them.
Sports betting comes to Ohio on Jan. 1, 2023: Your questions answered
Can we see how many people are betting on a certain team?
Many sites will show the percentage of money being bet on specific teams, Wankel said. But he raises a salient point about “data that gives you an edge.”
“You go back 20 years ago and you go, ‘Oh, I would kill to know some of this stuff.’ It’s interesting. Yes, a lot of this data certainly helps inform betters, but the game is still proving to be just as difficult to overcome. The house is still very hard to beat even with all the information that we have. You can be the most informed gambler and have all the statistics and advanced data and you can make really informed decisions, much more than you did previously, but it’s not foolproof.”
What arrangements will be made for people – visitors in particular – to be paid winnings?
Multiple deposit and withdrawal methods are available, Wankel said. With apps you have a digital account. Online banking, PayPal, Venmo and other options will be offered. Jack will offer cashiers, automated kiosks and the betJack mobile app. Also, cash-redemption terminals will be positioned so you can insert a winning ticket to retrieve your money.
Are there expiration dates for winnings?
A bettor can see their account balance online through apps. As you win or lose, your account will rise or dip. But gamblers should know this: There can be shelf life for introductory sign-up bonuses and incentives for registering on some apps. And Wankel said there is an organizer within apps that does the accounting for you, tracking your wagers.
Bettors should check terms and conditions based on the wagering company they are using. A year for a winning ticket is standard.
How easy it is to bet?
You go to a site, and an intuitive guide will pop up, Wankel said. A scroll of games will be shown. You see different “markets” with odds. For instance, a screen will show Arizona vs. New England, with the Patriots being -2.5. Press -2.5 if you want New England. Another window will ask how much you want to bet. A window will pop up, asking how much you want to wager. Enter amount, confirm bet, and a receipt is shown.
Ohio State and Michigan are sure to draw wagers. Can the line change because of the many fans betting on the game?
It’s no secret that Ohio State fans love their Buckeyes. Will operators take advantage of this and slant the line to make fans in Ohio, say, cover a few more points than gamblers in another state?
“If these operators were market specific, I guess that might be a consideration,” Wankel said. “But the thing you have to look at is these operators now are in more than a dozen states.” He said one site is not going to offer Michigan at -4 and another site at -2. “It’s a regulated market. That wouldn’t work. People have evolved enough that they would find a way to take advantage of that.” It would be too easy for someone to drive across a state line to wager. Even easier would be to pick up a phone. “What’s to stop you from calling your uncle in New York and say, ‘Hey, I’m going to put five grand on Michigan; you’re getting an extra two points over there.’ … In terms of market fluctuation, I don’t think there’s much there.”
Suliman put this bluntly: “Wagering behavior doesn’t control the line.”
“What would stop you is just general market conditions. And so I think most sportsbook operators have figured out exactly what you’re talking about.”
Could someone bet in Toledo, then drive across the border into Michigan and bet a different line there?
“What you’re going to find is that the odds are going to be the same, the lines are going to be the same,” Suliman said. “And the reason for that is that odds and lines are really based on the probability of an outcome, not really the amount of wagering that’s happening. It’s a bit of a myth, at least in the modern sports-betting world, that sports-betting companies will adjust the odds or the line based on how much money they’re taking in.”
That said, he added, there are times when a lot of action comes in on one team after bettors learn of a development after the initial line is set. An athlete could have Tweeted something revealing about his health, for instance. A line might move accordingly.
Is it true bookmakers don’t care who wins or loses, they just want 50 percent of the action on each side because they will make money on the ‘vigorish’ – that built-in tax?
Sort of. If this were true, it isn’t any more because of the countless micro-betting, in-game wagers.
Said Wankel: “Because of the diversification of betting markets available it’s not quite so simple. They’re never going to be able to control markets … like will the next pitch be a strike? You’re never going to draw even action on that because you never know how many people are going to bet on a given game in a market like that, and you never know how much they are going to bet. They can’t control that even split. That being said, the vast amount of money coming in is on those standard, more traditional bets. In a perfect world, you take the tax off of that and that’s a pretty good business model.”
What advice would you offer newbie gamblers?
“Best advice that I can give folks is to try it out in an environment where you’re not going to lose your money, right? Try it out until you understand the rules,” said Suliman, who said the free-to-play BetJack training camp “has all the real betting markets that will be available on Jan. 1. So for customers who are curious, for folks who maybe don’t know a ton about sports betting, it’s a good way to get in there, sort of mess around with sports bets, place different types of wagers, see what you like, see what you don’t like, without having real money on the line. It’s a good way to practice and kind of get your arms around it, because it is a different animal than what it was 20 or 30 years ago.”
“There’s nothing worse than losing a bet when you when you didn’t understand the rules,” Suliman said.
“Don’t bet beyond your means,” Wankel said. “It can be fun, it can be entertaining, it can enhance the entertainment element of taking in a game. But it’s easy to – and many people have – gotten carried away. You have to set limits and stick to them. You can’t chase losses and turn one bad bet into seven bad bets and you’re extended beyond your means. Use it for what it is – an entertainment commodity, and not something you are trying to alter your financial future with.”
Related stories:
What are futures bets & where to find them in Ohio sportsbooks
Everything you need to know to bet player props in Ohio
Online gambling in Ohio: Everything you need to know before launch
I am on cleveland.com’s Life and Culture team and cover food, beer, wine and sports-related topics. If you want to see my stories, here’s a directory on cleveland.com. Bill Wills of WTAM-1100 and I talk food and drink usually at 8:20 a.m. Thursday morning. Twitter: @mbona30.
If you purchase a product or register for an account through one of the links on our site, we may receive compensation.
If you or a loved one has questions and needs to talk to a professional about gambling, call the Ohio Problem Gambling Helpline at 1-800-589-9966 or the National Council on Program Gambling Helpline (NCPG) at 1-800-522-4700 or visit 1800gambler.net for more information.
21+ and present in Ohio. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-Gambler.
.