BetMGM Releases Information About How the Ontario Sports Betting Market is Faring

As of this writing, no sports betting data has been released by the regulators in Ontario. However, information on the status of one operator in the market has recently come to light. The CEO of BetMGM, Adam Greenblatt, had a fireside chat at the Canadian Gaming Summit a few days ago.

At that time, he reported that there were 70 million recorded transactions by the BetMGM Sportsbook in the month of May. Ontario sports betting first launched in August 2021, with a provincial lottery run online sportsbook. On April 4, the province was the first in the nation to expand to allow for commercial online sportsbook operators.

Since its launch, no information has been released about the success or failure of sportsbooks in the province. So, many are left wondering whether Ontario sports betting is the hit it was anticipated to be. Now, with this information from BetMGM, it looks like bettors in Ontario are living up to the hype.

Greenblatt was pleased by the online sportsbook’s success in the province. He indicated that the conversion rate for Ontario was higher than in many states in the U.S. He also indicated that the company was pleasantly surprised by the numbers.

A provincial election in Ontario was held on June 2, holding back a potential release of sports betting data from the province. An initial report on the Ontario sports betting market is now expected since the election has finally passed. However, no word has been released as to when this report will come out.

During the Canadian Gaming Summit a few days ago, iGaming Ontario and the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario representatives also failed to name an exact date. They would only disclose that a report of that nature would be coming in the near future.

According to Greenblatt, when sportsbooks launch in markets in the U.S., they receive an early rush from wagerers. However, this kind of early rush was not experienced in Ontario.

Greenblatt indicated that this rush in the United States comes from bettors wanting to place their wagers because they didn't have the ability to do so before. But, in Ontario, there was already an online sportsbook that bettors could use to place their sports bets. So, that meant that the new commercial sportsbooks had to entice new customers to come over from other sports betting options, including the gray-market operators.

In order to entice these bettors, Greenblatt indicated that BetMGM Sportsbook needed to make a large investment in advertisements in the province. However, this investment in advertising is only for the short term so the company can establish its name and a client base.

In both U.S. sports betting and Canada sports betting, Greenblatt says that operators who have money will be the companies that continue to advertise because they will be able to reinvest in their advertising, client experiences, and products.

In order to make a bigger splash when launching in the Ontario sports betting market, BetMGM Sportsbook made partnerships to help get the word out. These included partnerships with hockey legend Wayne Gretzky and current fan favorite Connor McDavid. Hockey has a huge following in Canada, but finding the same level of betting engagement with other sports could be a challenge.

Because it is not yet known how big the NFL betting scene will be in the Ontario sports betting market, Greenblatt indicated that it is hard for a company to know how much to invest in catering to it. He does anticipate that it will be a big betting market in the province, however, but still probably not as large as it is in the U.S.

We will know more about the peaks and valleys of the Ontario sports betting market once the market report has been released by Ontario regulators.

Written by Allie Nelson, our US Sports Betting Industry Expert.

The featured image for this post was sourced on Getty Images.