On April 4, iGaming Ontario executive director Martha Otton told an audience of industry attendees at a Canadian Gaming Association event that the province hosted $35.5 billion in total wagers over the igaming market’s first year, combining icasino and online sports wagering. That solidified Ontario as one of the North America’s largest igaming jurisdictions.
“We launched with 12 operators,” Otton told the audience. “It’s important to remember what the government goals were – player choice and player protection – and to provide opportunities for the legal market to provide revenue for the province, and to reduce red tape.”
Today, iGaming Ontario made those numbers official with the release of a fourth-quarter and full-year market-performance report for the province. One of the items that stood out was the quarter-to-quarter total wagers and GGR growth over Year 1. Total wagers in Q1 were at $4.08 billion, with gaming revenue at $162 million. In Q4 (Jan. 1, 2023, to March 31, 2023), total wagers in Ontario were $13.9 billion, while total gaming revenue was $526 million.
Based on that, according to iGO, the legal igaming market in Ontario has on average grown by more than 50 percent in total wagers and gaming revenue each quarter.
Total wagers do not include promotional wagers or bonuses. Total gaming revenue reported represents total cash wagers, including rake, tournament, and other fees across all operators, minus player winnings from cash wagers, not taking into account operating costs or other liabilities.
There were 44 operators and 75 gaming websites live in the province in Q4, 1.01 million active player accounts, and average monthly spend per active player account of $174. Active player accounts do not represent unique players, since individuals have active accounts with multiple operators.
Besides the $35.5 billion for first-full-year total wagers in Ontario, total gaming revenue for the full year was $1.4 billion. There were 45 operators over the first year and 76 gaming websites, 1.65 million player accounts active over the course of the first year, and the average monthly spend per active player account was $70.
Within the online-casino industry, nearly half (48 percent) of all casino wagers were on slots, nearly a third (32 percent) on table games with a live dealer, and the remainder (19 percent) on computer-based table games.
