Gamblers in Ontario wagered approximately $18.4 billion, and the online gambling market produced $726 million in total gaming revenue — from iCasino, online sports betting, and online poker — from April 1, 2024-June 30, 2024, according to iGaming Ontario’s 2024-25 Q1 market report released on Wednesday.
Those total wagers numbers represent a 3.4% increase over the last quarter and a 31% increase over Q1 last year, while the total gaming revenue data shows a 5.2% increase over the last quarter and a 34% increase year-over-year.
There were 50 operators offering 80 online gaming websites in Q1. Over 1.9 million player accounts were active during the quarter and monthly spend per active player account was $284 (note: iGO is now using an updated calculation method for this metric).
“With 50 regulated Operators and a one-third increase in wagering and revenue figures over the first quarter of last year, Ontarians who choose to gamble are finding many enjoyable options in our open regulated igaming market,” said Executive Director of iGaming Ontario Martha Otton in the release. “The revenue generated by Ontario’s competitive igaming market contributes directly to provincial priorities such as infrastructure, healthcare, and education.”
Online casino games continue to generate the lion’s share of revenue in the province, with slots, live and computer-based table games, and peer-to-peer bingo accounting for nearly $15.5 billion (84%) of total wagers and $529 million (73%) of gaming revenue. While sports betting, esports, proposition and novelty betting, and exchange betting accounted for $2.5 billion (14%) of total wagers and $181 million (25%) of gaming revenue during the opening quarter. Peer-to-peer (P2P) poker accounted for $402 million (2.2%) of total wagers and $16 million (2.2%) of gaming revenue.
Figures provided by iGO don’t include revenue generated by the Ontario Lottery Corporation (OLG) and its online gambling products. OLG was the only legal provider of Internet gaming before the launch of Ontario’s regulated iGaming market on April 4, 2022, and it still expects to maintain approximately 25%-30% of the online gaming market share despite increased competition from private operators, according to a recent Auditor General report.
A recent iGaming Ontario and Deloitte study found that Ontario’s regulated competitive igaming market sustained almost 15,000 jobs and added a combined $1.24 billion to federal, provincial, and municipal government revenues in its second year of operation. The regulated igaming market also contributed $2.7 billion to Ontario’s GDP in its second year of operation, up from $1.58 billion in its first year. None of those figures include the financial contributions from OLG. In its 2022-23 fiscal report, OLG says the crown corporation delivered $2.5 billion in net profit to the province through its lottery, land-based gaming, and digital gaming sectors, smashing the previous yearly record of $2.3 billion set back in 2019-20.
More on the growing market
Ontario provincial regulators have imposed a roughly 20% annual tax rate on private igaming operators, who also have to pay a $100,000 annual licensing fee to the Ontario government to run a commercial gaming site.
Since its inception on April 4, 2022, Ontario’s igaming market has generated roughly $117.14 billion in total wagers and $4.571 billion in total gaming revenue while showing growth each quarter.
| Quarter | Total Wagers | Total Gaming Revenue | Operators | Active Player Accounts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Q1 2022/23 | $4.07B | $162M | 18 | 492K |
| Q2 2022/23 | $6.04B | $267M | 24 | 628K |
| Q3 2022/23 | $11.53B | $457M | 36 | 910K |
| Q4 2022/23 | $13.9B | $526M | 44 | 1.1M |
| Q1 2023/24 | $14B | $545M | 46 | 920K |
| Q2 2023/24 | $14.2B | $540M | 47 | 943K |
| Q3 2023/24 | $17.2B | $658M | 49 | 1.2M |
| Q4 2023/24 | $17.8 | $690M | 47 | 1.3M |
| Q1 2024-25 | $18.4 | $726M | 50 | 1.9M |
| Total since launch: | $117.14B | $4.571B |
From a sports betting perspective, the first fiscal quarter of the 2024-25 year (April-June) represented an exciting time on the sports calendar, with the NHL and NBA playoffs driving revenue. April also marked the first month of the MLB season, and sports betting revenue was likely bolstered by the EURO 2024 and Copa America soccer tournaments in June.
It’ll be interesting to see if Ontario’s regulated igaming market continues to grow in the second quarter, which represents the slowest time of year on the sports betting calendar. Still, with iCasino driving the bulk of the revenue (around 75%), sports betting shouldn’t have too much of an impact on the bottom line.
The success of the Ontario market has encouraged Alberta to be the next province to embrace private igaming operators and implement an open igaming market. Alberta’s government is planning to largely adopt Ontario’s legal framework in order to get a regulated igaming market up and running in the province by as early as the end of the year, although those projections may seem slightly optimistic.
