Sports Betting Hall-of-Famer Johnny Avello on Ontario's Market 6 Months In
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There’s no better person to go to for observations on the first six months of a regulated online gaming market in Ontario than Johnny Avello, DraftKings’ director of race and sportsbook operations, who was inducted into the Sports Betting Hall of Fame in 2021.
Avello has had a front-row seat for the gradual legalization of online gaming across the United States in the past few years.
Because iGaming Ontario hasn’t released revenue data for individual operators, it’s difficult to get a sense of how DraftKings has done. DraftKings entered the Ontario market legally in May.
Gambling.com: How do you think the launch has gone in Ontario?
Johnny Avello: Well, the launch went well. Technical-wise, there were no issues at all. Our product just works, so that went very smooth. Remember, we like to be first to market in a lot of places, and that was not the case in Ontario.
We were behind about a month and a half, so we are playing a little bit of catch-up there. But there’s definitely been some new growth since the NFL season started. And the way you fund your accounts with Interac banking, for deposits, we did not have that. We have that now. That’s the preferred method where you are, so that’s going to help.
So things are going to get better for us. We think we’re going to make some real strides in gaining that ground. We'd like to see a little more pick up. We think we've got the best product up there, so hopefully with a couple of these changes that are being made, that will happen. I know last night we had a promotion — you have to be careful on how you do the promotions up there — but I think we added something like Blue Jays scoring one run, so that was something that we did last night. You could get like 25 bucks on that one thing.
Related: Ontario Celebrates Six Months of Regulated Gaming
GDC: How big a market do you think Ontario can be?
Avello: New York goes live and all of a sudden they are No. 1. But a lot of people were going across the border from New Jersey and betting. New York is a big, big state; you’re talking 20 million people, and two-thirds of that are in the metropolitan area, and New York’s continuing to grow. Ontario has huge upside.
I don’t think we’ve touched on the market yet. I think it’s been relatively soft there. I’m looking for bigger and better things. I know we’re introducing new products all the time, so much more than any of our competition.
GDC: How would you characterize the Ontario sports bettor?
Avello: You love your home teams up there. The best sport has been baseball, followed by NFL, but that’s because we really haven’t caught the NFL season yet.
The next time we speak, it will be NFL No. 1, MLB maybe 2, or maybe even hockey. When you look at our future book, the Blue Jays have taken about 16% of all the money, so they love the Jays up there, and they’re having a really good season.
Bettors like the Dodgers, who are a really solid baseball team, and the Yankees. Then there’s college football. The No. 1 team was Texas. I couldn’t figure that one out. Louisville and Florida State as well. In the future book, the Leafs are heavily bet — 24 percent of the money went there — and in basketball 36 per cent went to the Raptors.
GDC: What are your thoughts on the Buffalo Bills?
Avello: In my opinion, they are the best team in the NFL, as long as they stay healthy. In my opinion, they have all the positions covered.
But unfortunately in the NFL, the best teams don’t always win. You’ve got to have a lot of things go your way. Last year I thought they were one of the better teams, too, and it didn’t work out.
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