Posted on: December 13, 2024, 10:57h.
Last updated on: December 13, 2024, 11:51h.
Last week, the Auditor General of Ontario issued a report applauding the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation for the progress they’ve made in the face of stiff competitive winds over the past 19 months.
The crown corporation had no choice but to change its business practices when the commercial, competitive iGaming market opened in Ontario in 2022. According to iGaming Ontario, there are now 50 licensed operators in the province, including most of the major brands, including FanDuel, BetMGM, and DraftKings.
Casino and Sports Betting Revenue Up
“OLG has continued to have record-breaking growth in the digital business and has been able to maintain above-than-expected market share,” said OLG spokesperson Tony Bitonti. “Customer trust in our brand is important in a crowded field of competitors.”
OLG has three lines of business – lottery (retail), land-based gaming (the crown corporation conducts and manages gaming at 30 casino gaming facilities and 37 charitable gaming centers), and digital gaming (iCasino, iLottery, and iSports).
OLG reported gross online casino and sports betting revenue in FY 2023-24 of $630 million, up from $561 in 2022-23.
Canadian Gaming: Market Share Stats
The Ontario private market, not including OLG, saw $64 billion in total wagers in FY 2023-24 (April 1, 2023, to March 31, 2024) generating $2.4 billion in gaming revenue.
According to H2 Gambling Capital, the global specialist gambling sector market data provider, OLG has been holding its ground. Commercial operators in Ontario have a 78% market share, while OLG has 16%, and offshore platforms have 5%.
H2 utilizes sources like web traffic, affiliate traffic, and search volume data to estimate market size and growth rates in regulated markets where there is no official data.
H2: Bet365 Leads the Charge
Data sent to Casino.org on Friday shows bet365 with a 15% market share in FY 2024, followed by FanDuel (13%) and Betano (9%). Super Group comes in at 8%, followed by BetMGM, Entain, and BetRivers at 7% each.
The Auditor General, Shelley Spence, issued an annual report last week, that follows up on recommendations made to OLG in a casinos, lotteries, and internet gaming performance audit report from 2022. That report, issued after the regulated market went live, provided recommendations on how to make OLG more competitive in the new environment.
Implementing Recommendations
According to the AG Report, as of Nov. 15, 2024, OLG had fully implemented 32% (17) of those recommended actions, and is in the process of implementing 38% (20) more.
Recommendations that OLG has implemented include the introduction of more iGaming casino products, the expansion of more live game offerings (poker, blackjack) in collaboration with other provinces, assessing OLG’s staffing numbers to determine if they’re reasonable in relation to OLG’s mandate and responsibilities, breaking out casino operator fees as a separate line item in financial reporting to taxpayers, and integrating self-exclusion programs across OLG products.
New Casino Product
According to the AG report, “OLG developed a comprehensive strategy on the introduction of new products and the timeline for their introduction” in 2023.
As part of this strategy since our 2022 audit, OLG began introducing games every week with new features to drive engagement. Between February 1, 2024, and April 30, 2024, OLG introduced 80 new games or about six new games per week,” the report added.
In June 2023, OLG then established a team to explore potential new products, including real-time games, including live games that could be offered from a studio shared with other provincial lotteries.
As of June 2024, OLG was further exploring options for new product offerings and whether to join a national network or keep the product within a specific region. A potential implementation of the new option is expected by April 2025.
Level Playing Field
OLG Chief Gaming Officer Dave Pridmore has said that the competitive market challenged OLG to think differently about its product offerings and operations, while the open market leveled the playing field by making sure everyone plays by the same rules.
We thank the Auditor General of Ontario for the findings and recommendations in previous audits of OLG — as well as the follow-up observations,” said Bitonti. “We always welcome independent reviews of our business, which contribute to continuous improvement of our operations and performance.
“OLG has been actively working to implement the AG’s recommendations,” Bitonti added, saying that close to 80% of the recommended actions have been fully implemented or are in the process of being implemented.
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