The latest Ontario market report from iGaming Ontario shows that, while both online sports betting and iGaming continue to post healthy year-over-year growth, it is online casino gaming leading the way.

Commercial online casino offerings yielded around three times more revenue than online sports betting in Ontario during the Q2 2024 period from April 1 to June 30, according to numbers published on Wednesday

The Ontario commercial iGaming and sports betting Q2 2024 (Q1 of iGO’s fiscal year) data indicates that casino games, including slots, live and computer-based table games and peer-to-peer bingo, accounted for 84% (nearly $15.5 billion) of total wagering handle and 73% ($529 million) of gaming revenue.

Betting, including sports, esports, prop bets, novelty bets and exchange betting, accounted for $2.5 billion (14%) of total wagers, up from around $2 billion this time last year but down slightly from $2.7 billion in Q4 2023. Sports wagering yielded $181 million of gaming revenue, 25% of the Q1 2024 total.

Peer-to-peer poker made up $402 million of total handle and $16 million of gaming revenue.

Overall betting and gaming handle increased to $18.4 billion. That total sum, which does not include promotional wagers, is up 31% from a year earlier and 3.4% from the previous quarter. Total gaming revenue rose to $726 million, representing similar rises of 34% YoY and 5.2% QoQ.

Biggest growth comes in player account numbers

While online casino and sports betting handles and revenues posted strong growth, the biggest yearly gains were seen in the number of player accounts in the province.

The number of active player accounts more than doubled year-over-year, surging from around 920,000 to 1.9 million. iGO stressed that this does not mean 1.9 million Ontarians were playing, as many residents likely have accounts on more than one commercial operator.

Average monthly spend per active player account was also significantly higher at $284, up 44% from $197 last year.

“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 iGO Executive Director Martha Otton. “The revenue generated by Ontario’s competitive iGaming market contributes directly to provincial priorities such as infrastructure, healthcare, and education.”

Ontario approaching year-five targets after just two years

In iGO’s last quarterly report, it noted that Ontario online gambling sites generated $2.4 billion in revenue from $63 billion in wagers in the market’s second year, year-over-year jumps of 71.4% and 78%, respectively.

Wednesday’s release also comes just over a month after data published by iGO and Deloitte suggested that Ontario’s commercial iGaming market is performing far better than had been projected.

Commercial online gaming and betting in the province has so far generated more than $4 billion in economic value for the province and created around 15,000 jobs.

It all means that after little more than two years, Ontario’s market is already approaching longer-term targets.

As well as the two-year total of around $4.3 billion in GDP approaching Deloitte’s initial year-10 GDP forecast of $4.7 billion, Ontario commercial iGaming market has hit or nearly reached many of Deloitte’s year-five projections in just its second year. Government revenues (94% of the five-year projection in two years), direct jobs sustained (120%), total full-time jobs sustained (92%) and GDP contributions (93%) are all “outpacing initial expectations.”

Otton noted in that June report that while, “year over year, it’s unrealistic to expect that we’ll see growth of over 70%… to be frank, we’re not seeing the leveling off yet.”