Gamblers in Ontario wagered approximately $17.2 billion and the market produced $658 million in total gaming revenue — from iCasino, online sports betting, and online poker — from Oct. 1, 2023-Dec. 31, 2023, according to iGaming Ontario’s 2023-24 Q3 market report released on Wednesday.
The $17.2 billion in total handle, a 21% increase over Q2, does not include promotional wagers, and the total gaming revenue of $658 million, a 22% increase over Q2, includes rake fees, tournament fees, and other fees across 49 total operators and 72 active gaming websites.
Regulators are also reporting that there were 1.2 million active player accounts over the three-month period with an average monthly spend of $186 per user.
It’s important to note that these figures don’t include igaming revenue from the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation, which offers its own iCasino and retail and online sports betting platform. PROLINE+ was the first online sportsbook to launch in Ontario, shortly after Canada decriminalized single-event wagering on Aug. 27, 2021.
OLG was the only legal provider of Internet gaming prior to 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.
Revenue breakdown
Online casino games, including slots, live and computer-based table games, and peer-to-peer bingo, accounted for nearly $13.7 billion (79%) of total wagers and $471 million (71%) of gaming revenue during the quarter. Betting, including on sports, esports, proposition and novelty bets, as well as exchange betting, accounted for nearly $3.1 billion (18%) of total wagers and $171 million (26%) of gaming revenue. Peer-to-peer (P2P) poker accounted for $431 million (2.5%) of total wagers and $17 million (2.5%) of gaming revenue.
Market comparables
With the annoucement of Q3 data, it’s now clear how the market performed in 2023 as a whole: $59.3 billion in total wagers and $2.26 billion in total gaming revenue. And these numbers don’t reflect revenue from OLG, which reported $561 million in digital gaming revenue from April 2022-March 31, 2023 in its latest financial report.
Ontario provincial regulators have imposed a roughly 20% annual tax rate on private 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, Ontario’s igaming market has generated roughly $80.94 billion in total wagers and $3.15 billion in total gaming revenue.
| Quarter | Total Wagers | Total Gaming Revenue | Operators | Active Player Accounts | Average Monthly Spend |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Q1 2022/23 | $4.07B | $162M | 18 | 492K | $113 |
| Q2 2022/23 | $6.04B | $267M | 24 | 628K | $142 |
| Q3 2022/23 | $11.53B | $457M | 36 | 910K | $167 |
| Q4 2022/23 | $13.9B | $526M | 44 | 1.1M | $174 |
| Q1 2023/24 | $14B | $545M | 46 | 920K | $197 |
| Q2 2023/24 | $14.2B | $540M | 47 | 943K | $191 |
| Q3 2023/24 | $17.2B | $658M | 49 | 1.2M | $186 |
| Total since launch: | $80.94B | $3.155B |
As far as sports betting revenue is concerned, iGaming Ontario has only released revenue data specific to the discipline over the last three quarters (April 1, 2023-Dec. 31, 2023). Over those nine months, sports betting (and esports/novelty bets) has accounted for roughly $7 billion in total wagers and $427 million ($171M in Q1; $118M in Q2, $138M in Q3) in total gaming revenue.
So how did Ontario’s sports betting market compare to some of the top U.S. jurisdictions in 2023? It’s tough to compare because we’re missing the first three months of sports betting revenue data from Ontario and the Canada-U.S. exchange rate has obviously fluctuated throughout the year. However, here’s a few 2023 sports betting handle and total gaming revenue comparables in states south of the border, courtesy of Sports Handle‘s numbers guru Chris Altruda:
| State | Handle ($USD) | Total Gaming Revenue |
| New York | $19.2B | $1.69B |
| New Jersey | $11.97B | $1B |
| Massachusetts (launched in March) | $4.97B | $483.6M |
As you can see, sports betting is far more prevalent in states like New York and New Jersey when compared to Ontario. Massachusetts, a state with roughly half the population (roughly 7 million) of Ontario’s (roughly 15 million) is perhaps the best comparable when taking into account the exchange rate (as of today $1 CAD=$.74 USD). Having just launched its sports betting market in March of last year, the data also basically lines up with Ontario’s nine months of data from April-December.
Ontario ranks as a top-five igaming jurisdiction in North America after New York, New Jersey, Michigan, and Pennsylvania. In its first full year of operation, the market saw $35.6 billion in total wagers and $1.4 billion in total gaming revenue. Through three quarters in its second year of operation, the market has produced $45.4 billion in total wagers and $1.74 billion in total gaming revenue.
