Ontario handle tops C$35.6bn in first year as data suggests fraudsters are targeting former gray market

Ontario’s regulated market raked in C$35.6bn in total handle and approximately C$1.4bn in total gaming revenue during its first year of operation, according to officials from iGaming Ontario.

Releasing data following the province’s first anniversary, officials and stakeholders in the Ontario sports betting and igaming market have lauded the performance of the regulated market, which includes more than 1.6 million active player accounts.

On average, iGaming Ontario data estimates the monthly spend per active player account in 2022 to be in the region of C$70.

The most popular betted-on sport during the year was basketball, which accounted for 28% of all wagers placed over the year, followed by soccer at 15%, American football at 14% as well as hockey and baseball at 9% and 8%, respectively.

Within the online casino category, nearly half (48%) of all casino wagers were on slots, nearly a third (32%) on table games with a live dealer, and the remainder (19%) on computer-based table games.

Ontario Attorney General Doug Downey welcomed the first anniversary of the market launch, citing the strong track record of regulators in the province during the first year.

“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,” Downey said.

“We are truly proud of this strong, responsible, competitive online gaming model.”

However, geolocation software company GeoComply has published data suggesting the Ontario market has become a hotbed for potential fraudulent activity, with criminals from both the US and internationally attempting to gain access to operators licensed there.

GeoComply data, derived from Ontario’s first year of operation, reveals Ontario-licensed operators have been the subject of more than 3.3 million so-called ‘location spoofing’ attempts from around the globe.

According to the data, more than 744,000 users have attempted to log in 19.9 million times to Ontario operators from around the world, with more than 54,000 of these users trying to log in 305,000 times from the US.

In respect of customer data, GeoComply revealed that more than 219,000 devices have been prevented from gambling based on suspicions of fraudulent activity, with the firm detecting 1,045 ‘fraud rings’ affecting multiple operators.

Addressing the data, GeoComply director of risk services Danny DiRienzo cited the need to remain vigilant in respect of protecting the regulated market.

“Ontario is such a large market and the opening of any market results in bonus offerings attracting fraudsters,” DiRienzo explained.

“This, coupled with the traditional gray market operations in Canada, resulted in experienced fraudsters hunting bonuses from day one, as anyone with a set of stolen identities could collect bonuses from several operators.

“GeoComply remains vigilant alongside our operator partners.

“During the last 90 days, a third of GeoComply’s fraud investigations have involved Ontario operators, despite Ontario accounting for far less than a third of our overall traffic.

“The investigations have affected most Ontario operators, so fraudsters are targeting almost everybody,” he added.

According to an IPSOS survey carried out in March, which has been released by the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO) in tandem with the iGaming Ontario data, 85.3% of survey respondents who gambled online over the last three months in the province did so via regulated sites.

The remaining 14.7% of survey respondents who have gambled online in Ontario said they had wagered only on unregulated websites.

For this survey, a total sample of 1,850 Ontarians aged 19+ were interviewed. This included a general population sample of 1,000 Ontarians, with an additional sample of 850 Ontarians who gambled or wagered real-money bets online over the past three months.

As of April 4, 2023, 45 operators are live in Ontario and AGCO has approved over 5,000 certified games for use in the province.