The second year of Ontario’s great experiment in online gambling saw wagering with internet casinos and sportsbooks climb even higher, highlighting the growth of iGaming in Canada’s most populous province.
Numbers reported on Wednesday by iGaming Ontario (iGO), a government agency, show that a total of $63 billion (in Canadian currency) was wagered in the province’s competitive online gambling market during the year ended March 31, up 78% from the year before.
Approximately $35.5 billion was bet in the iGaming market in its first year of operation, which began on April 4, 2022. Those figures do not include free bets and other bonuses given to players and then wagered by them, iGO noted.
The agency also said that total gaming revenue for the 2023-24 fiscal year was $2.4 billion, a 72% increase compared to 2022-23. Around $1.4 billion in total revenue was generated in Year One of the iGaming market, about 20% of which was kept by the province and the remainder held by operators. The province is entitled to that cut through the contracts iGO has with operators.
“With $63 billion in wagering and $2.4 billion in gaming revenue, the second year of Ontario’s igaming market is more than 70% bigger than the first,” iGaming Ontario Executive Director Martha Otton said in a press release on Wednesday. “As the market matures into its third year, I look forward to building on this foundation of success with operators and other partners as they invest in Ontario so that Ontarians can continue to play with confidence.”
bet365, BetMGM, and theScore Bet are among those who have recently obtained new iGaming registrations from the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario, which will allow them to continue operating in the province. pic.twitter.com/NtHrUIlvqW
— Geoff Zochodne (@GeoffZochodne) April 8, 2024
The numbers, which do not include the online gambling operations of government-owned Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp. or pari-mutuel wagering on horse racing, highlight the continuing growth of the province’s competitive iGaming market, which remains the only one of its kind in Canada. They also do not include the success Ontario has had in transitioning bettors from "grey market" sites to ones regulated by the province, which recently celebrated the second anniversary of its iGaming regulatory framework.
Ontario broke with tradition in Canada by launching the iGaming market in April 2022, as most other provinces have granted government-owned companies a legal monopoly over online gambling. Since the launch of the iGaming market, Ontario has gone from one legal operator of online gambling, OLG, to nearly 50, who offer more than 70 sites to residents over the age of 19.
Casino royalties
The figures reported Wednesday by iGO show the bulk of wagering is happening with online casino sites. Approximately $51.7 billion was staked with iCasino operators during the year that ended March 31, compared to $9.7 billion with online sportsbooks and $1.6 billion via poker sites.
The revenue raised was chiefly from casinos as well, with $1.8 billion generated from online slots and table games, in addition to $588 million from sports and event betting and $67 million from poker.
iGO also noted that there were more than 1.3 million active player accounts as of the end of March. The average monthly spend per active player was $263, the agency said.
Ontario is eyeing further avenues of growth for its iGaming market as well. The provincial government recently announced it would ask the Court of Appeal for Ontario for a ruling on whether local players could gamble alongside international bettors, which could potentially pave the way for a return of daily fantasy operators and growth in online poker.
