Prime Sports entered Ohio's online sports betting market as its first state Sept. 13 with a different strategy from its 19 competitors there.
Embrace sharp action. Allow high limits for all bettors and don't penalize those who do well. Avoid spending on bonus bets and other promo offers to attract customers. Refrain from heavy advertising dollars.
In other words, Prime Sports is the anti-FanDuel and the counterpoint to DraftKings in a world where those two have dominated the industry in Ohio and everywhere else by claiming some 70% or more of action on sports betting apps.
And after nearly three months, how's all that working out for Prime?
“Everything we've done over the last three months, we're very happy about,” said Joe Brennan Jr., executive chairman of the new operator. “The mass of liquidity coming into us is from the sharp guys, the toughest guys, and they haven't bankrupted us, and we're not going to be bankrupted anytime soon.”
Prime Sports has shown quick growth – “organically” without heavy marketing spend, Brennan emphasizes – in one of the nation's largest sports betting markets, even while arriving after a nine-month head start by most rivals. Legal online and retail sports betting launched in the state on Jan. 1, 2023.
The November sports gaming report from the Ohio Casino Control Commission showed Prime with betting handle of $5.8 million for the month, good for 10th in the state, ahead of peers such as BetRivers and PointsBet that already had multi-state track records backed by advertising dollars. Prime's betting volume was well more than double the $2.3 million it attracted in its first full month of Ohio sports betting in October.
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Took @primesportsbook only 10 weeks to jump into the Top 10 of OH sportsbooks
Offering an alternative to offshore & the street while welcoming players poorly served by other brands seems to have potential