Ontario’s legal online gambling market is off to a strong start just one year after launch, already cementing itself as one of the top five igaming jurisdictions in North America.

According to a new report from iGaming Ontario released Tuesday, the fledgling industry netted approximately $1.4 billion in total gaming revenue and roughly $35.6 billion in total wagers during the market’s first year.

Ontario was the first Canadian province to launch a legal, regulated market on April 4, 2022. Since then, there have been more than 1.6 million active player accounts have registered with websites run by over 40 operators associated with iGaming Ontario.

“Ontario’s igaming market has displaced the pre-existing unregulated market and made Ontario a recognized leader internationally in this industry since its launch in April 2022,” said Ontario Attorney General Doug Downey in the release. “We are truly proud of this strong, responsible, competitive online gaming model.”

The shift from unregulated sites to the legal market appears to have gone smoothly; an Ipsos survey released Tuesday found 85 per cent of respondents who gambled in Ontario did so on regulated sites. That’s a big change from before the launch of the market, which found 70 per cent of people did their gambling on unregulated sites.

On average, active players spent around $70 per month over the past year, according to iGaming Ontario.

The most popular sport to bet on was basketball, followed by soccer, football, hockey and baseball. In the online casino category, 48 per cent of all wagers were spent on slots, nearly a third was spent on table games with a live dealer and the remainder on computer-based table games.

“Since Ontario opened the market we have seen new investment, job creation, and captured revenue that used to leave the province,” iGaming Ontario board chair Dave Forestell said in the release. “Ontario is well on its way to becoming the best gaming jurisdiction in the world.”

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