GeoComply Recaps Ontario’s First Year of iGaming

This week is one for celebrations for Ontario’s gambling industry, as the province marks its first anniversary since the debut of its private iGaming market. For the occasion, GeoComply, which provides geolocation services to the sector, issued its report on the first year. Overall, there were 19.9 million login attempts from more than 744,000 users in 12 months.

Ontario’s market first launched on April 4, 2022, and it was the first of its kind for Canada as no other province allows an unlimited amount of third-party operators to operate legally. It is operated by the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario and its subsidiary iGaming Ontario. Meanwhile, GeoComply makes sure that all bettors are within the province’s physical borders.

Recapping Year One of iGaming

In its report, GeoComply notes that sportsbooks and iGaming platforms generate 19.9 million login attempts worldwide from more than 744,000 users for the first calendar year. This resulted in CA$35 billion in handled wagers. Over 54,000 of the attempts came from users within the U.S. who tried to access Ontario operators approximately 305,000 times in the first 12 months.

Furthermore, the province had more than 3.3 million location fraud attempts for sports betting, meaning that a person or a program from outside the province attempted to access the market over. Also, the province clocked more than 219,000 login attempts from devices associated with fraud. GeoComply also spotted roughly 1,045 fraud rings that have impacted several operators

The geolocation provider also reported that for the last 90 days, a third of its fraud investigations have involved Ontario operators, despite Ontario accounting for far less than a third of our overall traffic. This involved some of the leading sportsbooks in the business, including PointsBet, FanDuel, BetRivers, Caesars, BetMGM, and DraftKings, which operate in the province.

Ontario is also celebrating the occasion, on April 4, 2023, the province issued its first-year report on the market, which revealed some exciting data. The sector handled CA$35.6 billion in wagers and brought CA$1.4 billion in revenue. It also found approximately 85% of the participants who gambled online in the province over the last three months have done so on regulated sites.

The most preferred sport to bet on for the first year was basketball with 28% of the bets, followed by soccer with 15% football at 14% and hockey at 9%. It found that almost half of all gamblers preferred slots, as they accounted for 48% of the iCasino volume. Meanwhile, nearly a third of the casino play or 32% was captured by table games with live dealers.

Spin Genie Also Publishes First-Year Survey

A few days prior to the anniversary, Spin Genie Ontario has also issued a survey on the local sector, which was facilitated by Angus Reid Forum. Its findings include that 43% of online players have been playing digitally for less than a year, while 24% joined the market in the past six months. Among those aware of Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation’s OLG.ca, 72% knew it was provincially run.

Source: Byers, Justin “First Year of Sports Betting in Ontario Saw 19.9M Login Attempts” Covers, April 4, 2023