Ontario report The newest mature market
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THE NEWEST MATURE MARKET
Ontario is one of the newest regulated igaming markets in the world . Yet , as PlayOjo founder Ohad Narkis explains , in many ways it resembles a mature market – a fact that has shaped the operator ’ s strategy for its launch in the province
THINK OF new markets opening up to regulated igaming and a number of jurisdictions spring to mind . Among the most obvious is Ontario , which permitted licensed operators to launch their products on 4 April .
But for Ohad Narkis , chief executive of SkillOnNet brand PlayOjo , to treat Ontario like a new market is to miss the point . Despite the recent launch , Narkis says it has the characteristics of somewhere that has permitted igaming for a much longer period of time , thanks in part to the many years it spent as a grey market before steps to regulate began .
“ Ontario I would definitely place similar to the more advanced and more mature European markets , similar to the UK , maybe even similar to New Jersey , where we don ’ t operate yet but will do ,” he says .
“ I think the fact that Canada as a whole was quite mature as a grey market and quite developed in sports betting as well as igaming plays a part . And it ’ s affluent , with a middle-class audience , and it ’ s tech-savvy . All of that lends itself well to a high participation rate for gambling and potentially high player value .”
Despite the many ways Narkis sees Ontario as a mature market , ultimately it is new to regulated online gambling .
October 2022