Cincinnati Reds and BetMGM aim to move ballpark sportsbook

The retail sportsbook at Great American Ball Park is being called ‘Ohio’s worst-performing sportsbook.’

Ohio baseball team, The Cincinnati Reds, along with BetMGM, has plans to move its retail sportsbook from within Great American Ball Park to a space formerly used as a nightclub in the Galla Park area. State revenue data confirms the sportsbook has comparatively underperformed, and this relocation aims to increase foot traffic.

Surveillance footage from the sportsbook’s current location also recently served to indicate and implicate a person who placed bets in connection with recently fired University of Alabama Baseball Coach, Brad Bohannon, and two of his staffers.

The Reds bought a leasehold interest from Galla Park’s operators before Galla Park Gastro’s closure in February. BetMGM announced its partnership with the Reds in January, including a sportsbook location accessible from, but outside the stadium, in compliance with MLB rules.

The Reds’ CFO, Doug Healy, told an Ohio Senate panel in May 2021 that the team wanted its sportsbook elsewhere, prior to sports betting’s legalization in the Buckeye State.

“Our vision would be, assuming we have access to the Type A license, we would partner with a sportsbook operator who would set up some form of a retail location situated down there on the Banks. A retail presence on that riverfront could be an economic driver that helps generate foot traffic.”

According to the Ohio Casino Control Commission, the sportsbook’s current location makes it the only retail sportsbook in Ohio that failed to generate revenue. BetMGM suffered a loss of $8,025 after paying winnings and voiding wagers between January and April.

BetMGM staff members were, however, praised by the regulator in April for their role in alerting authorities to the above-mentioned baseball coach’s betting infractions.

Stephanie Feeley

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