Gaming News Canada

On a new episode of the Gaming News Canada Show presented by Bede Gaming, Canadian Gaming Association president/CEO Paul Burns returned to the podcast. Burns joined host Steve McAllister from Las Vegas, where he attended last week’s International Conference on Gambling and Risk Taking and joined Dr. Mary Donohue to talk about The Power of Protective Pause: Emotional Regulation in Gambling Environments. The CGA’s head honcho provided his takeaways from the 19th annual conference. Burns and McAllister also shared their thoughts and layers from the recent SBC Summit Canada, including: The road to regulation in Alberta some nine weeks before the western Canada province joins Ontario to offer a competitive gambling industry;The remarks by Stan Cho, Ontario’s Minister of Tourism, Culture and Gaming, at the conference;The results of the AGCO-commissioned study into channelization;A reckoning from panelists and people with whom we spoke at the summit that the time has come to take further action when it comes to player protection, responsible gaming communication and advertising;A need for elected officials and others to be better when it comes to understanding the separation between regulated and unregulated gaming.Burns’s response to iGaming Ontario’s launch of its centralized self-exclusion program.

There was a “well, that makes sense” feeling on last week’s announcement by Kambi that it would be collaborating with Canadian printing security company Canadian Bank Note Company to support CBN’s online sports betting operations in South and Central America, and the Caribbean. It’s (almost) all Canadian all the time these days for Kambi, which earlier this year helped OLG launch a new and improved version of Proline in both digital and retail form, and then last month was selected by Atlantic Lottery and BCLC to provide the power behind their multi-province sportsbook. So, what better timing to welcome back to the Gaming News Canada Show presented by Bede Gaming, Kambi’s chief commercial officer – and, of course, a Canadian – Sarah Robertson. Among the topics du jour: Kambi’s work in seven Canadian provinces;Robertson’s thoughts on the incoming regulated market in Alberta;The expected avalanche of activity by bettors around this summer’s men’s World Cup of Footy;The ongoing controversy around in-play/prop betting;The ongoing story in the U.S. these days around prediction markets.The opportunities around the growth of women’s sports.

Before ironing his dress shirts and (crying while) filling up the vehicle with petrol for the road trip to Toronto and the SBC Summit Canada, Steve McAllister virtually visited one of the panels for this week’s gathering of the Canadian gaming industry for a new episode of the Gaming News Canada Show presented by Bede Gaming. Joining McAllister to provide a sneak peek at their Brick by Brick: The construction of a new affiliate landscapediscussion Wednesday afternoon were Bet99 head of affiliate marketing Andrew Garven, Linemate co-founder Calvin Konya, Hot Takes Sports CEO Tyler Amirault and former Game Lounge director of casino Keith Geary. Among the topics du jour was examining the changing landscape around affiliates over the four-plus years of legal, regulated sports betting and online gaming in Ontario and the lessons that could/should be applied to the incoming open market in Alberta this summer. The panel also looked at the evolving relationship between operators and affiliates, and also discussed what’s on their To Do list over the next two days at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre.

Steve McAllister welcomed back a couple of chief executive officers to a new episode of the Gaming News Canada Show presented by Bede Gaming: PointsBet Canada boss Scotty Vanderwel and Bede head honcho Colin Cole-Johnson. The reason for the joint appearance? PointsBet and Bede last month announced collaboration on a new casino aggregation and bonusing platform provided by Bede to the Ontario-licensed operator. Vanderwel discussed the decision to bring Bede on board to power its new proprietary platform, which gives PointsBet access to an extensive online casino catalogue that includes Games Global, Pragmatic Play, Play’n GO, Light & Wonder, and other games suppliers. Cole-Johnson talked about the company’s experience in the Ontario marketplace through its long-time partnership with OLG, and the collaboration process between the two companies’ teams to create and launch the new platform. McAllister asked both leaders about the growth of igaming in Ontario’s regulated gambling industry, the player protection piece of the platform and the importance of both companies’ culture during the building process. Vanderwel and Cole-Johnson both addressed the opportunity around the incoming open market in Alberta and the need to create a unique product for customers in the western Canada province.

The latest Gaming News Canada Show presented by Bede Gaming took the conversation on advertising in the gambling industry in a different direction. Host Steve McAllister was joined by two of Global TV Experts senior executives: Nick Wood, the Global Director of Client Strategy and Growth, and Jenny Croswell, the Managing Director of Canadian Operations. Wood and Croswell talked about their respective journeys through the TV and media industry, and the story behind Global TV Experts in Canada and other parts of the world. The company advises clients in the gambling industry on their media buys. Both guests addressed the ongoing influence of television around advertising campaigns and the evolution of those campaigns in the changing regulated sports betting and gaming landscape. McAllister also asked Croswell for her reaction to the latest report from Canadian Media Means Business on the impact of fewer advertising dollars being committed to traditional media. And, our two guests also discussed responsible gaming advertising, and the incoming open and regulated market in Alberta.

On a new episode of the Gaming News Canada Show presented by Bede Gaming, Steve McAllister is joined by two of the leading voices in the just-released research on sports betting advertising and its impact on young men. Dr. Andrew Kim, psychology professor at Toronto Metropolitan University and Canada Research chair in addictions and mental health comorbidity, and Greo Evidence Insights chief research officer Matthew Young discussed with McAllister the findings of the research that was conducted in Alberta and Ontario. TMU and Greo received a helping hand from Brock University, the University of Calgary, the University of Massachusetts Amherst and the University of Bristol, with funding provided by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the Alberta Gambling Research Institute. Among the topics discussed:The genesis of the study, and how the funding was secured.The effect of sports betting advertising, especially on men under 30, and how those ads motivate young gamblers to play online casino games.The effectiveness of responsible gaming advertising.The need for problem gambling to be identified as a public health issue.Thoughts on placing additional restrictions on gambling advertising. The efforts by the authors of the research to get the results in front of gambling industry stakeholders. The need for ongoing research with the Ontario legal market now four years old, and an open, regulated market ready to launch in Alberta this summer.