The latest report from Vividata explores iGaming in Canada to lay out who’s playing online, how often and what it might take to reach them with ads.

The report looked at the top 19 websites and apps that offer gambling or betting in Canada, measured by the highest reach in an average month. It used Vividata’s SCC/Digital and SCC/Sports & Esports databases.

Over 6.7 million or 22% of Canadian adults visit an online gambling and sports betting property such as Bet365, BetWay, Espacejeux and PlayNow in an average month. That is in-line with, but slightly behind, the 6.9 million projection Vividata predicted in 2020. Vividata noted that there has been a similar trend in lottery, which dropped from 16.6 million to 15.3 million people buying tickets, possibly due to inflationary pressures impacting discretionary spending.

In 2020, Vividata found that those over 50 made up roughly half of all online gambling site visitors, with those 35 to 49 and those under the age of 35 each making up roughly one quarter. Today, 50-plus visitors dropped to 46%, while visitors under 35 moved ahead of those 35 to 49 by 5%.

Vividata segmented online gambling visitors into three categories: occasional visitors, who visit a top gaming site one or two times in an average month; moderate visitors, those who visit three to 10 times a month; and frequent visitors, those who make 11 or more visits a month.

Younger Canadians are most likely to be an Occasional Visitor, although they are on the brink of moving into moderate territory. Those aged 35 to 49 have slowed their visitation in terms of frequency and are now moderate to occasional visitors. Players 50-plus are most likely to be frequent visitors and least likely to be occasional or moderate visitors.

Online gamblers tend to have lower household incomes the more regularly they play, although most of that is attributed to the 50-plus age group. With an average household income of $75,928, frequent visitors over 50 earn about $10,000 less on average than those that are occasional visitors. For those under 35, all frequencies are a high-value group, living in households earning more than the average Canadian in general and earning nearly $8,000 more per year than their age group.

Frequent visitors are bigger savers, particularly frequent visitors under 35. This group exceeds the national average in investments and saving for all ages by 17% and the average of their own age group by 77%.

Visits to top private sites like Bet365, Betway and Unibet are increasing, gaining around 700,000 new unique visitors as a whole in the last two years – predictably, as their offerings become legalized in Canada. This has been at the expense of sites run by provincial lotteries, which have seen a drop of 400,000 unique visitors since 2020.

Online gamblers are more likely to be active online than the average Canadian. Search, social media and video streaming properties the top sites they visit. Nearly four in five of them also visit mass retail shopping properties such as Amazon, Walmart or Canadian Tire in an average week, 28% more likely than the average Canadian. Frequent visitors are up to twice as likely than the average Canadian to visit websites and apps themed around sports, weather and grocery shopping. Facebook is the social media platform of choice for online gamers, though Instagram is nearly twice as likely to be visited by frequent gamblers.

Connected TV is popular with online gamblers, with 60% of visitors using a CTV in an average month. In addition, three in 10 only watch TV by streaming; 20% watch only live TV or on-demand TV; and 45% watch live TV, on-demand and online streaming. The top genres are drama (56%), news (54%), suspense (45%) and sports (39%).