Q1 Ontario Online Gambling Report
As we all know the regulated iGaming market launched in Ontario on April 4th. At the end of August iGaming Ontario released the Q1 Ontario Online Gambling Report on marketing performance covering the first quarter of online operations (April – June 2022). Here is a breakdown of the statistics that they shared.
- Total Wagers: $4 Billion
- Total Gaming Revenue: $162 Million
- Operators: 18
- Active Player Accounts: 492,000
- Avg Monthly Spend: $113
It’s also important to note that these figures do not include OLG figures, which up until April 4th was the only legal Canada-based online gambling provider.
After taking a look at these figures I can definitely say I am not very impressed with the market performance so far. Of course, there are a number of mitigating circumstances to this. The online market is still in its initial stages and there are still a number of online casinos and sports betting brands that are still waiting for their license to come through. April – August did not really have any amazing sports events to bet on and there was no NFL, which is one of the most popular gambling markets in Canada.
That being said, the most shocking thing about this report is that there is a hold (profit margin) of just 3.9% which combines both sports betting and casino performance. The average hold on casino games is around 3.5% but on sports betting it is usually much higher, anywhere from 5% to 15%. I am generalizing here, but to have such a small margin, including sports betting, is something of a surprise.
One other thing to consider is that if you take the TGR and divide it by the number of operators you get an average of 9m. Again, not the best number in the world but let’s just chalk it up to it being the first quarter of the active market and marketing efforts have only just started.
Final Thoughts
As I’ve already made clear, I’m surprised at how low the numbers are in the Q1 Ontario Online Gambling Report but there are mitigating circumstances that we can take into account. I’m also curious to see how these numbers will change once Sports Interaction, Betway and Pinnacle enter the regulated market. I think once these big players enter the market we will get a better idea of the real revenue figures. In the meantime, we’ll keep you updated with the latest figures as they are released.
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