Ontario horse racing industry is “under competitive siege” from online gambling sector
Horse racing is struggling to compete with, “the proliferation of advertising and aggressive player marketing from well-funded and deeply capitalized licensed digital gaming operators.”
Ontario’s online gambling sector is having a negative impact on the province’s horse racing industry. This according to Andrew Gaughan, the independent chair of Ontario Racing, the non-profit organization that represents the horse racing industry and provides important breed improvement programs.
In a story on the Ontario Racing website (crafted by yours truly), Gaughan is quoted as saying a decline in betting on horse racing in Ontario coincides with the launch of the province’s online gambling industry in April of 2022. Bets made in Ontario on horse racing are referred to as Home Market Area (HMA) wagering.
Over the last two fiscal years, HMA wagering has declined 12.6 per cent, with a 6.5 per cent decline from $733 million to $686 million in the last fiscal year.
That has already led to a decrease in funding for programs under the Horse Improvement Program (HIP) managed by Ontario Racing. HIP supports the breeding and racing of thoroughbreds, standardbreds, and quarter horses.
HMA wagering provides about 60 per cent of total HIP funding. In fiscal year (FY) 2025, the amount of HIP funding from HMA wagering was just over $20.6 million (unaudited). Due to the decrease in HMA betting, the amount of HIP funding from that source is budgeted to be $19.35 million at the end of the current FY2026.
“HMA wagering is under competitive siege from the advent and proliferation of advertising and aggressive player marketing from well-funded and deeply capitalized licensed digital gaming operators in Ontario and this decline in HMA wagering in the last two years amounts to an annualized loss of about $11-12 million of horse racing industry income,” Gaughan said. “It means we have had to trim about $3 million annually from the respective [Horse Improvement Programs] and budgets in addition to the industry income loss.”
The Ontario horse racing industry supports 15 racetracks, about 10,000 horses connected to racing and, most importantly, some 30,000 jobs — about 23,000 of those are full-time equivalent jobs. That’s significantly more than the number of jobs in Ontario that come from online gambling.
AGCO has a request for media accepting ads from Bodog: Please stop
There was a good story this week in Canadian Gaming Business from Tom Nightingale reporting the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO) has asked media platforms to stop taking ads from unregulated online gambling operators, with a specific reference to Bodog.
Nightingale wrote, “The AGCO said it has called upon more than a dozen traditional and digital media platforms to ‘step up the fight’ and stop promoting unregulated sites in Ontario by pulling down any existing ads and refusing to run any others in the future. The regulator added that, by advertising unregulated online casinos and sportsbooks, legitimate media offer those operators ‘a veneer of legitimacy.’”
In a news release, the AGCO provided a quote from CEO and registrar Dr. Karin Schnarr:
"The AGCO is committed to protecting Ontario players and ensuring they have the safest experience by playing on regulated igaming sites. By refusing to carry advertising from unregulated and high-risk operators like Bodog, media organizations can exemplify social responsibility and play an important role in protecting Ontarians and supporting Ontario’s regulated market."
Gaming News Canada has been in contact with the AGCO communications team with a request for Schnarr or someone else from the commission to join us on the Gaming News Canada Show.
Gouker on unregulated sites trying to appear legitimate
While we’re on the topic of unregulated / illegal operators, some great stuff by Dustin Gouker this week on the subject. In his always-excellent The Closing Line newsletter on Tuesday he called out GlobeNewswire for helping bring legitimacy to unregulated sites.
Gouker wrote, “GlobeNewswire — which is sometimes used as a legitimate way of distributing news into the world — is also being used to help offshore sportsbooks and casinos with trust in search, generate backlinks and aid customer acquisition with Astroturfed ‘news.’”
Gouker then provided some examples of GlobeNewswire stories with the headlines:
• Georgia Sports Betting: Bovada Picked as the Best Georgia Sportsbook
• Connecticut Sports Betting: BetOnline Picked as the Best CT Sportsbook
• Best Idaho Sports Betting Sites: Everygame Picked As The Top Sports Betting Platform
• Best Online Gambling Sites in California: Slots.Iv Picked as Top Choice
For those that might not be paying as close attention to the industry as Gouker, Georgia has not legalized sports betting, BetOnline is not a legal operator in Connecticut, Idaho has not legalized sports betting and California definitely has not legalized online gambling of any kind. Just ask the tribes.
Given the rise of prediction markets in the United States, the “what is legal gambling and what is not” debate is already too difficult for casual observers to follow. This is just one more example of how the unregulated operators are trying to confuse the public.
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