The new AGCO study shows that around 9% of Ontario players bet exclusively on unlicensed platforms. Blask data shows a figure almost twice as high.
The Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario published a new channelization study on May 22. The key figure: only 8.9% of users play exclusively on unregulated websites, down from 16.3% a year earlier.
In the same week, iGaming Ontario launched BetGuard — a centralized self-exclusion tool that simultaneously blocks access to all licensed operators, deletes existing accounts, and disables marketing communications.
Two methods — two numbers
The AGCO survey captures one specific behavior: players who bet only on unregulated websites. This group almost halved over the year — a clear signal that the licensed market is pulling players in.
According to Blask data for the last 12 months, offshore brands in Ontario held an average 20.3% BAP and generated $637M in CEB — 18.7% of Ontario’s $3.41B market volume.
The figures of 8.9% (AGCO) and 20% (Blask) do not contradict each other, since the AGCO figure counts players who use only unlicensed platforms. A player who visits both a licensed casino and an offshore one falls into the 91.1% channelized audience — but their spending on the offshore brand remains visible in Blask data.
The Ontario split also matters for Alberta. As Blask reported earlier, 25 of the 30 brands preparing for the launch of Alberta’s licensed market already live in Ontario. Alberta is becoming the next major channelization test for operators that have already gone through Ontario.