Ontario's Online Market Takes CA$396.3m in August as Betting Revenue Falls 30% on July
By Antonina Tupikova · Founder, iGaming Times2 min read
Online casino carried Ontario again in August, with revenue up 25.6% on a year earlier, while sports betting revenue fell 9.6% year on year and 30% month on month on a weaker hold. Active accounts dropped 11% in a month.
- Ontario's regulated online market generated CA$396.3 million of non-adjusted gross gaming revenue (NAGGR) in August 2026, up 18.4% on August 2025 and down 4% on July, according to iGaming Ontario's monthly data
- Online casino produced CA$336.3 million, 85% of the total, up 25.6% year on year on CA$8.78 billion of wagers
- Betting revenue fell to CA$54.4 million, down 9.6% on a year earlier and 30% on July, as betting wagers fell 15% month on month to CA$843 million
- Active player accounts fell 11% on July to 1.21 million, while average revenue per active account rose 8% to CA$328
- iGaming Ontario lists 49 operators running 84 gaming websites as of 1 September; its figures exclude OLG's own online offering
Casino Up, Betting Down
iGaming Ontario (iGO) published its August figures on 23 September. Total cash wagers were CA$9.74 billion, down 1% on July and up 19.7% on August 2025. NAGGR, which is cash wagers minus player winnings and excludes promotional wagers, was CA$396.3 million. That is the lowest monthly total since March 2026, according to iGaming Times' reading of iGO's data series.
Casino did the work. Wagers of CA$8.78 billion were flat on July and 21.5% higher than a year earlier, and casino NAGGR rose 2% on the month to CA$336.3 million. Casino, which in iGO's definition includes slots, live and computer-based table games and peer-to-peer bingo, accounted for 90% of wagers and 85% of revenue.
Betting went the other way. Wagers fell to CA$843 million from CA$992 million in July, and revenue fell to CA$54.4 million from CA$77.8 million. Against August 2025, betting wagers were up 10.2% but revenue was down 9.6%, from CA$60.2 million. On iGaming Times' calculation, betting revenue as a share of wagers was 6.45% in August, against 7.84% in July and 7.87% a year earlier. iGO does not give a reason for the decline. July included the closing weeks of the World Cup, which drove record betting handle in Ontario in June and ended on 19 July. Peer-to-peer poker revenue was CA$5.6 million, down 17.6% on August 2025.
Active player accounts, which iGO counts per operator rather than per person, fell to 1.208 million from 1.365 million in July, the lowest since September 2025, but were 18.9% higher than a year earlier. Average revenue per active account rose to CA$328 from CA$303.
Casino Is Now the Whole Growth Story
Year on year, the market's revenue grew by CA$61.5 million. Casino added CA$68.5 million of that, and betting and poker together subtracted about CA$7 million. In Ontario, four years in, sports betting is the product that brings customers in and online casino is the one that earns from them. For operators it argues for casino-led product and marketing investment. For policymakers it is the part of the market that has drawn most scrutiny, including research that found gambling-disorder emergency visits in Ontario doubled once the online market opened.
August Betting Numbers Are About Hold and Calendar, Not Demand
The monthly betting decline looks sharp, but the evidence points to margin rather than appetite. Betting wagers were still up 10.2% on a year earlier; what fell was the share operators kept, from nearly 8% to about 6.5%. A lower hold in one month is normal variance, and August followed a July that still had World Cup matches to bet on, while the NFL regular season had not yet begun. The more telling figure is the 11% fall in active accounts, a market-wide figure that will be worth watching in September, when football should bring betting accounts back. If it does not, the drop is a retention problem rather than a seasonal one.
Ontario's market is still growing at nearly 20% a year four years after launch. Almost all of that growth now comes from casino, which is both its commercial strength and its regulatory exposure.
