Ontario igaming wagers hit $26.5bn in first year
Ontario emerged as one of North America’s largest igaming markets in the first year of business.
Canada.- In just one year, the new legal igaming market in Ontario has generated CAD$35.6bn ($26.5bn) in wagers and approximately $1.4bn in gaming revenue. That places the Canadian province among the top five igaming jurisdictions in North America, according to iGaming Ontario (iGO).
Ontario was the first Canadian province to launch an open, regulated igaming market on April 4, 2022. Since then, more than 1.6 million active player accounts on websites run by over 40 operators with agreements with iGaming Ontario have made the province a highly competitive market.
Province attorney general Doug Downey said: “Ontario’s igaming market has displaced the pre-existing unregulated market and made Ontario a recognized leader internationally in this industry since its launch in April 2022. We are truly proud of this strong, responsible, competitive online gaming model.
“I want to especially commend the strong leadership of executive director Martha Otton, Board chair Dave Forestell and the rest of the team at iGaming Ontario for helping us transform Ontario into a global leader in the sector.”
On average, iGaming Ontario numbers show a monthly spend per active player account of about $70. According to an Ipsos survey conducted in March 2023 and released yesterday by the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO), around 85 per cent of respondents who gambled online in Ontario over the past three months gambled on regulated sites.
The most popular sport to bet on was basketball at 28 per cent of betting wagers, followed by soccer at 15 per cent, football at 14 per cent, then hockey at 9 per cent and baseball at 8 per cent.
Figures show that in the online casino category, nearly half (48 per cent) of all wagers were on slots, nearly a third (32 per cent) on table games with a live dealer and the remainder (19 per cent) on computer-based table games.
