The latest facts and figures for the Ontario igaming market have been released in the iGaming Ontario (iGO) FY23-24 Q2 market performance report, which shows a CAD$5m ($3.7m) decrease in total gaming revenue QoQ.
According to the report, total gaming revenue of CAD$540m ($396.5m) shows a 105% increase over Q2 last year; however, it also represents an 8.3% decline from the CAD $545m ($400.2m) generated in FY23-24 Q1.
This comes despite an increase in total wagers (excluding bonuses) for the period July 1 – September 30, from a record CAD $14bn ($10.3bn) in the prior quarter to CAD$14.2bn ($10.4bn) in Q2. This figure does represent a 132% increase on wagers during the same period last year, though, when the market was still in its infancy.
Speaking at G2E earlier this week, Martha Otton, Executive Director of iGO, shared her verdict on the report before its official release.
“The Q2 results are very consistent and stable with what we saw in Q1,” said Otton, according to Gaming News Canada. “When you take into consideration the months we just covered, which you know is slow sports (period), we’re very pleased.”
The report also noted an increase in the number of operators, from 46 to 47, while the number of gaming websites remained at 71.
The number of active player accounts also jumped from 920,000 in Q1 to around 943,000, with the average monthly spend per player account decreasing from $197 to $191.
Otton added: “One of our challenges is just the quality of data that we’ve been getting from operators. When you deal with 47 operators, a number of them who have never operated in Canada or in Ontario…I’ll be honest, that’s been a challenge for us. We want to ensure the data is accurate before we go public on it.”
Casino games including slots, live and computer-based table games and peer-to-peer bingo accounted for nearly CAD$11.9bn/$8.7bn (84%) of total wagers and CAD$407m/$298.8m (75%) of gaming revenue in Q2, compared to CAD$28bn/$20.6bn (78%) and CAD$940m/$690.2m (67%) in Q1.
Betting, including on sports, esports, proposition and novelty bets, as well as exchange betting, accounted for nearly CAD$1.9bn/$1.4bn (13%) of total wagers and CAD$118m/$86.6m (22%) of gaming revenue, down from CAD$2bn/$1.5bn (14%) and CAD$138m/$101.3 (25%) in the previous quarter.
Meanwhile, peer to peer (P2P) poker made up CAD$397m/$291.5m (3%) of total wagers and CAD$16m/$11.8 (3%) of gaming revenue, up from Q1 where it accounted for CAD$350m/$257m (3%) and CAD$15m/$11m (3%) respectively.
The split is likely to change in the next Q3 report, though, with the NFL, NBA and NHL seasons all well underway during that period.
