According to Jay Snowden, chief executive officer of PENN Entertainment Inc., which owns TheScore Bet Ontario Sportsbook, Ontario is now that company’s largest market in North America for both sports betting and iCasino.
Last week, iGaming Ontario released their Q3 market performance numbers for Ontario online casinos and sports books, through Dec. 31 — total wagers at $11.53 billion (91% increase over Q2) and total gaming revenue at $457 million (71% increase over Q2).
That figure represents total cash wagers, including rake fees, tournament fees and other fees, for all licensed operators through Dec. 31, minus player winnings from cash wagers, and does not take into account operating costs or other liabilities.
PENN Happy With Ontario Performance
So what came out of the PENN Q4 earnings call yesterday was another exclamation point on how well the Ontario sports betting and iGaming market is doing.
“Ontario is now our top market in North America for both sports betting and iCasino with strong growth and positive trends through our first NFL season, including record gross and net revenues in December,” Snowden said during the call. “We were able to maintain our market share in Ontario this quarter despite a 50% increase in the number of operators in the province [Q3 to Q4], which I think really speaks to the quality of our products and the stickiness of theScore Media ecosystem … probably better results in Ontario than we had expected, which is great for lots of reasons.”
NFL betting has been the boon. So was PENN’s migration to their own tech stack in Ontario, Snowden added.
“With full control of our product roadmap, we have been able to quickly add new features and betting markets to theScore Bet including our own same game parlay offering, which has led to a noticeable increase in hold, both compared to our pre-migration track record in Ontario as well as what we are seeing here in the U.S. … I would say that we are still in the very early innings in Ontario as it relates to our parlay offerings,” he said.
Advanced promotional capabilities have been delivering higher retention and higher revenue per player metrics in Ontario compared to the U.S., Snowden added.
OntarioBets.com has complete news coverage, along with all the latest on the best Ontario casino apps.
