$2 Billion Bet on Sports in Ontario During Q1 2023

• Ontario iGaming reported $2 billion bet on sports from April 1 through June 30, 2023.
• $14 billion in wagers were reported in the quarter.
• Total gaming revenue in Q1 in the province was $545 million.

Ontario sports betting saw a total of $2 billion wagered on sports from April 1 through June 30, 2023, accounting for 14% of all wagers placed in the quarter in the province,  according to Ontario iGaming.

iGaming Ontario reported the total betting figures for the province for Q1 2023. Betting on sports, which included esports, as well as proposition and novelty bets, led to $138 million in gaming revenue for province.

In total, Ontario bettors wagered $14 billion for the quarter, leading to $545 million in total gaming revenue.

The Ontario Lottery and Gaming corporation online gambling figures are not included in the iGaming Ontario report.

Ontario Sports Betting Solid, But Casino is Money Maker

In total, sports betting accounted for just 14% of the total $14 billion wagered throughout the province in Q1 2023. Online casino betting dominated the Ontario scenes, with users betting $11.6 billion in total online casino handle, which translated to $392 million in gaming revenue. This included slots, live and computer-based table games, and peer-to-peer bingo.

Peer-to-peer online poker saw a $350 million handle as well, just 3% of the total gaming handle for the quarter, and $15 million in gaming revenue for Ontario.

iGaming Ontario reported 920,000 active player accounts during the time period, with each account spending on average $197 a month.

The $545 million in total gaming revenue for the quarter was a record for Ontario, an increase of 3.6% from the Q4 2022 revenue total of $526 million. Ontario’s online gaming tax rate is currently at 20%, so the province took in $109 million in online gaming taxes.

Sports betting accounted for $27.6 million of the total online gaming taxes for the quarter.

$7 Billion Bet on Sports in Last Year

Ontario launched iGaming and online sports betting for the first time April 2022,

According to the report, from April 4, 2022, through March 31, 2023, Ontario sports bettors wagered a total of $7 billion on sports, which led to $433 million in gaming revenue. Casino wagering saw a total handle of $27.6 billion with $940 million in gaming revenue, and peer-to-peer poker saw a total handle of $992 million with $40 million in total gaming revenue.

In total, Ontario bettors wagered $35.6 billion in the 2022 fiscal year, totaling $1.4 billion in gaming revenue. For the entire year, Ontario reported $280 million in iGaming taxes.

Ontario Sports Betting Single-Game Bill History

Canada made sports betting history in June 2021 when the Senate of Canada approved Bill C-218 by a vote of 57-20 with five abstentions without amendment at third reading. This bill allowed each Canadian province to regulate and legalize single-game sports betting on its own. This is similar to the 2018 process in the United States when the Supreme Court overturned the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act prohibiting states from authorizing sports betting.

The Private Member’s bill, sponsored by Saskatoon-Grasswood Conservative MP Kevin Waugh, amended the Canadian Criminal Code to remove language that required sports bets to be placed across multiple events.

Prior to the passage of this bill, parlay bets were the only legal form of sports betting in the country.

Each province was given the authority to develop its own sports betting rules and regulations for single-game events