Last Updated On 15 October 2024, 11:23 AM EDT (Toronto Time)
Ontario is Canada’s most populated province, a thriving place filled with big cities that offer plenty of opportunities to new immigrants.
Ontario is Canada’s economic heart, a thriving commercial center that has numerous major industries that are rife with chances for people to building promising careers.
Over the past few years, a new industry has emerged in Ontario that is filled with potential: the online betting market.
iGaming Ontario is a regulator in the province that now licenses and taxes sportsbooks, and it has opened the door to plenty of new jobs.
Let’s explore the role this rising online gaming industry plays in creating exciting new job opportunities for immigrants to the province.
Table of Contents
Background
For many years in Canada, the sports betting market was not regulated by the government. In fact, single-game sports betting across the country was illegal and a part of the Canadian Criminal Code.
This all changed with Bill C-218, which removed single-game sports betting from the Code.
After Bill C-218, provinces were faced with a decision. They could choose to do nothing and wait and see. Or they could take action.
That is what Ontario did. Ontario launched iGaming Ontario, a massive regulator that now oversees all Ontario betting sites.
They license operators, oversee them, tax them, and ensure they are safe and secure. Ontario is thus far the only province that has taken this significant step.
Since Ontario has done this, dozens of massive sportsbooks have arrived in the province. These sportsbooks aren’t just digital.
They are major companies, some with thousands of employees around the world, and they are bringing a lot of money with them.
These operators are now allowed to advertise in the province and have to pay taxes, and they are lifting up the provincial economy.
The sports betting industry is now thriving across the province, and it has opened a lot of doors that previously remained shut.
For immigrants to Ontario, this has perks, because the job market has a new major player.
The Job Market
It is hard to say exactly the impact that sports betting has had on the Ontario market, but it is clearly significant.
What we do know comes from a report from the global consultancy Deloitte, who partnered with iGaming Ontario to research the impact that sports betting has had on the province. What they’ve found has been shocking.
In 2023, just the second full year of sports betting being fully legal in the province, the report showed that the Ontario online betting market had contributed a massive $2.7 billion to the Ontario GDP, which was a 70% increase from 2022.
While this is exciting for people who immigrate to Ontario because the more money the province has, the better its infrastructure and services will be, what most immigrants care about are the job opportunities. The impact has been substantial in this area as well.
The same report showed that operators in Ontario now employ directly 2,675 people with an average salary of $122,500 per person.
While the direct impacts are great, the residual benefits are substantial as well. The Ontario sports betting market sustained 14,935 jobs in 2023, which was a 24% increase from 2022.
It is clear that this has played a major role in spurring economic growth in the province.
For immigrants to Ontario, having a new sector that is growing at a rapid rate is something to be very excited about.
There are many new offices that are opened across the province, and they are looking for talented and hard-working employees for roles with plenty of growth potential.
What the Future Could Hold
While the situation right now is hugely exciting, it also isn’t the final stage of where the Ontario betting market will end up.
In less than three full years, the market has expanded massively, and it is highly likely that this will only continue within the province.
If there are more operators flooding into Ontario, there will be even more new employment opportunities.
This is now a multi-billion-dollar industry in the province, and the growth potential seems limitless.
The more money there is in this industry, the more employees these companies will need to scale the growth.
What should excite immigrants across the country is that it all won’t likely end with Ontario. As we mentioned, all the provinces across the country except Ontario took a more patient approach to sports betting.
However, seeing the success of Ontario’s rollout of the betting industry, many provinces will also likely lean in.
This will make sports betting not just an Ontario thing but a massive nationwide economic engine.
For immigrants across Canada, this could mean plenty of exciting, high-paying new opportunities opening up in locations near them.
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