Ohio may be the first state in the country to allow sports betting license holders the chance to partner with an unlimited amount of online sportsbook entities.

The Ohio sports betting bill, SB 176, continues to make its way through the state legislature as the Ohio Senate Select Committee on Gaming approved several amendments to the document. The amendments were approved yesterday after a brief 15 minute hearing.

Unlimited sportsbook partners for Ohio online sports betting

Introduced last week, the bill will include two types of sports betting licenses. Type A licenses will include state entities that have the ability to bank a bet, such as the state’s 11 casinos and racinos. Type B licenses will be for future brick-and-mortar sportsbooks. Twenty licenses of each type will be available for interested parties. Each type of license will cost $1 million for three years and a 10% tax rate will be set on sports betting revenue.

Both Type A and Type B licenses will allow for online sports betting partnerships. These partnerships will be decided by the free market and no special considerations will be made for any entities in the process.

Sen. Nathan Manning (R-55), joint sponsor of the bill, noted that Type A license holders must subcontract their mobile sports betting applications to an online sportsbook partner. However, there is no limit to the amount of online sportsbook partners the license holder can partner with. A Type A license holder could partner with an unlimited amount of online sportsbook partners if they wanted to, he said.

No other state in the country with legalized sports betting has an uncapped number for online sportsbook partnerships.

Sports betting bill amendments approved

The approved amendments to the bill allow existing racinos and casinos to apply for Type B licenses. Also, any entity applying for a Type A license must have some kind of presence in the state to be eligible.

“While we’re not requiring these licenses to be tethered to a racino or casino, they can certainly use them as a presence in the state,” Manning said.

Additionally, the “first come, first serve” language for the Type B license application process has been removed from the bill. The licenses will be awarded based on the strength of potential bids, not on their timing.

The bill offers Ohioans three ways to gamble on sports. In person betting, online betting and sports betting pools through the Ohio State Lottery would be permitted if the bill is approved. The lottery would allow for $20 wagers on the outcome of a certain sporting event, with winners splitting a pool of money from losing wagers.