How big is gambling in Ontario?
Since Ontario became the first province in Canada to launch an open, regulated iGaming market, there have been more than 1.6 million active player accounts on websites operated by companies with agreements with iGaming Ontario (iGo), according to iGo. There are more than 40 operators with such agreements — 31 of them offer sports betting.
On April 4, iGo said in the legal online gambling market's first year, the province delivered "about $35.6 billion in total wagers and approximately $1.4 billion in total gaming revenue." But those numbers don't solely include sports betting, as they also cover casino games and peer-to-peer poker. The data from iGo does not detail the proportion of bets that were strictly made on sports.
The totals shared by iGo also don't include the digital gaming business that the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation (OLG) accounts for, including its own sports betting transactions.
According to an Ipsos survey conducted in March, basketball was the most popular sport in the province for bettors (at 28 per cent), followed by soccer (15 per cent), football (14 per cent), hockey (nine per cent) and baseball (eight per cent).
A previous version of this story stated that in the legal gambling market's first year, bettors placed about $35.6 billion in wagers and that the province received $1.4 billion in total gaming revenue. This story has been updated to clarify that the data from iGaming Ontario does not detail the proportion of bets that correspond strictly to sports betting. The story also stated there are more than 40 companies with agreements to provide online gambling services in Ontario. This story has been updated to clarify 31 of those companies provide sports betting.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/ontario-gambling-ads-sports-stars-1.6810519#:~:text=New%20proposal%20aims%20to%20reduce%20the%20appeal%20of%20gambling%20to%20kids&text=The%20Alcohol%20and%20Gaming%20Commission,kids%20in%20internet%20gambling%20advertisements.