Online gambling has become increasingly popular in recent years, and the regulated Ontario iGaming market is no exception. As the market grows, so does the number of attempts to access it from outside provincial borders. GeoComply, a Canadian-born-and-bred company, has released new data that sheds light on the size and scope of these attempts.
“Consumers want protections. They want to play on regulated legitimate sites if given the opportunity,” Lindsay Slader, senior vice president of compliance at GeoComply, told CDC Gaming Reports.
This sentiment underscores the importance of regulation in the online gambling industry. Players want to feel secure and confident that the sites they use are legitimate and trustworthy.
GeoComply works closely with licensed igaming operators to provide fraud prevention and cybersecurity measures. Their geolocation systems, installed on over 400 million devices, analyze over one billion transactions every month. This technology helps detect location fraud and verify a user’s true digital identity, ensuring that only players within Ontario can access the regulated market.
One of the key functions of GeoComply’s technology is to block attempts from outside players to access the Ontario market. These attempts often involve players spoofing their IP addresses, using spoofing software, or finding a proxy within Ontario to place wagers. From September 7 to November 15, there were 750,000 out-of-province attempts blocked via IP spoofing and 78,000 attempts blocked via spoofing software.
GeoComply also reported 2,300 out-of-province suspected proxy betting attempts during the same period. These numbers highlight the extent to which players outside of Ontario are trying to circumvent the regulations in place. By blocking these attempts, GeoComply helps maintain the integrity of the regulated market.
GeoComply’s overview of Ontario market data provides valuable insights into the trends and patterns of online gambling in the province. Some notable highlights include:
The Ontario market experiences a significant increase in geolocation volumes on NFL Sundays, with a 57 percent increase through mid-November. This suggests that sports betting, particularly on NFL games, is a driving force behind the growth of the online gambling market in Ontario.
Since the start of the NFL season, GeoComply has blocked 105,000 attempts from Quebec to access the Ontario market. This indicates that players from neighboring provinces are eager to participate in the regulated market.
In September and October, the start of the NFL season, there was a 90 percent increase in new-player accounts, amounting to 250,000 new accounts. This surge in registrations demonstrates the growing interest in online gambling among Ontario residents.
Over the past 30 days, GeoComply processed over 15.9 million checks within 10 kilometers of the Ontario border. The high pass rate of 99.8 percent suggests that the majority of these checks were from players within Ontario, further highlighting the effectiveness of GeoComply’s geolocation technology.
While GeoComply’s technology effectively blocks attempts from outside of Ontario, there are still players from sanctioned regions who try to access the market. Since the kickoff of the NFL season, there have been 1,900 access attempts from sanctioned regions, with 33.5 percent from Ukraine, 28.6 percent from Cuba, and 11 percent from China.
These numbers indicate that despite the regulatory measures in place, players from these sanctioned regions are actively seeking ways to participate in the Ontario market.
