What North America Online Market Has Been Most Successful in First Three Years?
If you had to guess the top-performing licensed and regulated online poker market in North America in its first three years, Michigan might be your top guess, and you’d be right. The Wolverine State had $5.965 billion from Feb. 2021 through Jan. 2024. But do you know the second-largest market over its first three years?
You’d probably guess either Pennsylvania or New Jersey, perhaps even Nevada, but you’d be wrong. You’d actually have to look north to Canada for the answer.
Ontario has been the second-best performer in regulated online gambling in North America over the first three years of its existence, behind Michigan.
PokerNews Ontario Ambassador Kyle Anderson touched upon it a bit more:
Below you will see the numbers compiled by gaming expert Steve Ruddock over at Gaming News Canada. Ontario is converted into USD for comparison’s sake. However, as Ruddock states, the numbers do not include the state-run lottery platforms like OLG, which account for 20% of the online gaming revenue in the province.
If those numbers, which are not yet known, are taken into account, then Ontario will very likely surpass Michigan to become the best-performing market in its first three years of existence.
| Market | Timeframe | Total Gaming | Sports Betting | Online Casino |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Michigan | Feb. 2021 through Jan. 2024 | $5.965 billion | $1.2 billion | $4.77 billion |
| Ontario | April 2022 through present | $5.221 billion | $1.29 billion | $3.8 billion |
| Pennsylvania | Aug. 2019, through July 2022 | $4.107 billion | $1.1 billion | $3 billion |
| New Jersey | Casino (Dec. 2013-Nov. 2016); Sports (June 2018-May 2021) | $1.546 billion | $1.09 billion | $457.5 million |
There are over 50 operators on over 80 gambling platforms in Ontario, with Bet MGM being reported as the market leader.
Despite strong numbers, the province believes that a notable amount of Ontario gambling is still conducted on grey market sites. Igaming Ontario surveyed Ontarians, and the results came back that about 16% of people do their online gambling via unregulated sites.
Ontario’s success serves as a great blueprint for Alberta, which has also announced they will be doing the same in their province and regulating online gambling. It remains to be seen whether an Alberta poker will be a segregated market, enter the global market, or enter a multi-provincial market with Ontario.
Eligible iGames conducted and managed by iGO are only available to those physically present in the Province of Ontario. PokerStars Ontario operates pursuant to an agreement with iGaming Ontario.
For more information, visit the Ontario Players Homepage
*Lead image dreamstime.com.
