Shortly after Ontario released its first official fiscal numbers on its new private iGaming market, Sports Betting Canada published its newest study on the local sector. It discovered that majority of the locals are not quite familiar with the launch of the brand-new market, and more than of the respondents shared that they have not placed a bet on it yet.
Ontario’s new iGaming and mobile sports betting model officially started on April 4, 2022, and it is regulated by the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario. The study questioned 1,222 individuals between July 19 and 20 for their views on the newly regulated sports betting market. Over 619 of the questioned were males and the remaining 603 were female.
Findings from the Research
Canada Sports Betting’s study found that 55% of the surveyed Ontarians were not aware that the new market had been launched. Out of those who were interested in sports wagering, 55.5% said they had not placed bets on the new regulated sites. In addition to that, 10% of that group, shared that they wager every month on sports and 8.7% said that they do it daily.
Also, 46.9% of the questioned responded that they were not interested at all in online sports betting, while another 13.9% said that they were not very interested. And only 13.8% of the surveyed shared that they are very keen on it. A large portion of the respondents or 87% were born between 1946 and 1996, with just 17% born between 1900-46, and 11.7% between 1997-2005.
It should also be noted that the research found that some bettors are unsure about some areas of sports betting. For instance, more than 34% admitted that they did not fully grasp the concept of bonuses but just wanted the bonus money, while 25.5% shared that they fully understood that they must meet wagering requirements in order to unlock promotional bonuses.
Last but not least, the study found that hockey is the most preferred betting option among respondents as 36.7% of the people pointed it as their first choice. The NFL was second with 27%, followed by basketball and baseball with 24.9% and 24.1% respectively. Meanwhile, soccer got 19.1%, horse racing 15.3% the CFL 12.5%, UFC 11.8%, golf 9%, tennis 8.2% and curling 3.3%.
First Financial Results
At the end of August, AGCO’s subsidiary iGaming Ontario released its first monetary report for the new market. The report is for the first quarter of operations from launch until June 30, 2022. For its first three months, operators generated CA$4.076 billion in total wagering handle and only CA$162 million in revenue for the province, which is less than the initial projections.
Meanwhile, the number of provincially licensed operators continues to grow bigger. Just recently, Sports Interaction a brand that has been operating as a grey market brand in the province announced its official transition. The operator was launched in 1997, and it is governed by Mohawk Online, which is a socio-economic initiative wholly owned by the Mohawk Council of Kahnawake.
Source: “Canada Sports Betting survey suggests many in Ontario cool to sports wagering” Yahoo, September 6, 2022
