Despite immense competition from more than 80 legal online gambling sites, the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation’s (OLG) online casino, sports betting and iLottery operation grew its revenue in fiscal year 2023-24.
Revenue from the OLG’s digital operations was $630 million in FY 2023-24, up 12% from $561 million in FY 2022-23 which coincided with the first year of the open Ontario online casino, sports betting and poker sector.
Though the fiscal year ended on March 31, the OLG’s annual report for 2023-24 was released publicly this month.
Bottom line, it means we finally know the total revenue of Ontario’s online gambling sector for its second full year of operation.
Ontario online gambling revenue topped $3 billion in second year
It’s important to note that OLG numbers are not included in those released by iGaming Ontario (iGO), which reports the revenue from all other online operators.
But since the fiscal years for both the OLG and iGO are the same (April 1 through March 31), the release of the OLG’s annual report tells us exactly how much revenue came from online gambling in Ontario in the first two years of an open market.
In the first fiscal year, revenue reported by iGO for all operators was $1.4 billion. Add in the OLG’s $561 million and total online gambling revenue in the province was $1.961 billion.
In the second fiscal year, revenue from iGO operators was $2.4 billion. With the OLG’s $630 million added, the total online market produced revenue of $3.03 billion. That’s an increase of 54.5% from Year 1 to Year 2.
In total, through two years (ending March 31, 2024), revenue for all Ontario online gambling operators was just a smidge shy of $5 billion at $4.991 billion.
That’s a lot of cheddar.
OLG’s 24% market share is significant
Through two years, the OLG’s digital operations has produced revenue of $1.19 billion.
Given the incredible competition, that’s significant. It means that OLG holds a total market share of 24%, which is impressive.
Since all of the proceeds of the OLG’s operation are returned to Ontario, that’s a big piece of the total revenue pie.
The net profit to the province from digital operations alone was $302 million in FY 2022-23, $332 million in FY 2023-24 for a total return to Ontario of $634 million.
Despite digital growth, total OLG revenue decreased 6.5%
Despite the success of the OLG’s online gambling operations, the corporation’s revenue decreased from FY 2022-23 to FY 2023-24. Lottery sales were key to the decline.
In the most recent fiscal year, total OLG revenue was $4.7 billion. That includes lottery and retail operations, along with online revenue. The figure is down 6.5% from $5.02 billion in FY 2022-23.
The breakdown was as follows:
- Retail casino gambling — $1.979 billion up 1% from $1.959 billion
- Lottery — $1.755 billion down 5.5% from $1.857 billion
- Digital gambling (online casino, sports betting and iLottery) — $630 million up 12% from $561 million
OLG profit to the province was $2.37 billion, down 5.4% from previous year
In terms of the net profit to the province, the number was down 5.4%. It decreased from $2.505 billion to $2.37 billion in 2023-24.
The most recent net profit to the province was off 8% from the budgeted figure of $2.57 billion.
In 2023-24, the breakdown of that net profit to the province by the major sectors was:
- Retail casino gambling — $1.33 billion down 3% from $1.37 billion
- Lottery — $966 million down 11% from $1.088 billion
- Digital gambling — $332 million up 10% from $302 million
