Gaming News Canada

Since we started covering the business of sports betting and gaming almost five years ago, experts in the space have talked to us about exploiting the omnichannel opportunities. Among the operators which are delivering that combination of land-based and digital gaming is BetMGM. Hence, the maiden appearance of chief revenue officer Matt Prevost on a new episode of the Gaming News Canada Show presented by Bede Gaming. Prevost talked about the reaction from customers to the launch earlier this year of Live from Vegas, a casino-floor studio inside the MGM Grand in Las Vegas that produces – with support from gaming industry supplier Playtech – live streaming interactive table games to its digital players.  Prevost also talked about the popularity of the company’s Family Feud and The Price is Right products, the result of BetMGM acquiring the rights to the iconic television shows at the beginning of 2025. The conversation also got into sports wagering, including an early look at the Super Bowl and NFL betting so far this season, and, of course, the Toronto Blue Jays’ run to an epic World Series and the impact that had on BetMGM bettors in Ontario’s regulated marketplace. We also asked the head revenue guy if BetMGM’s attitude towards prediction markets have changed since CEO Adam Greenblatt addressed them during an earnings call in October. 

When Martha Otton announced in the summer of 2024 that she was retiring as Executive Director of iGaming Ontario, there was thinking among different sectors of the province’s regulated igaming market that the organization’s Chief of Staff, Mitch Davidson, would be a great fit to move into the leadership role. Instead, Davidson decided in August to get back into the policy game, this time as Vice President, Policy for Canadian public affairs firm Enterprise Canada. The former Director of Policy for the Premier’s Office was our guest on the latest episode of the Gaming News Canada Show presented by Bede Gaming. Your humble host tried to cover with the new father the gamut of topics in the business of sports betting and online gaming, Canadian style, including: Davidson’s decision, after speaking with some gaming-related businesses, to join Enterprise;The work done at iGO under the leadership of Otton and him to launch Ontario’s open private-sector market in April 2022, and the success story that is the Ontario model;Why the implementation of a centralized self-exclusion program, identified as a priority by operators, has taken so long (new iGO president and CEO Joseph Hiller told us on the GNCS at the beginning of the month he expects the program to be launched in the first half of 2026);Other priorities for iGO moving forward;His reaction to last week’s decision by the Court of Appeal for Ontario to go along with reviving pay-to-play daily fantasy contests and expanding online poker games (Davidson writes about the court ruling and liquidity in his latest post on The Policy Shop);What happens with regulated gaming beyond Ontario, including Alberta. Davidson also explained the motivation for the creation of The Policy Shop on Substack, a weekly, well-reasoned deep dive into the issues that matter most to Canadians these days and – importantly - offering potential solutions.

Count the Canadian Gaming Association among the entities in the business of sports betting and other forms of gambling that are riding the industry’s fast-moving train these days. Hence, our rationale for bringing back on the Gaming News Canada Show, CGA president and CEO Paul Burns for a rapid-round episode of the podcast. Burns first addressed last week’s decisionby the Court of Appeal for Ontario with regards to expanding peer-to-peer play to international jurisdictions and the potential opportunities around the court’s ruling if there are no appeals filed over the next 20-something days.  Next up was a segment on Bill S-211 – aka the National Framework on Sports Betting Advertising Act – passing first reading in the House of Commons. That led to Burns walking your humble host through the CGA’s recently released Code for Responsible Gaming Advertising, put together in collaboration with the association’s membership and with Ad Standards – Canada and scheduled to be put into effect at the beginning of the new year. Burns also spoke about the CGA’s request for an exemption from the cash limits in Bill C-2, which awaits passage in the aforementioned House of Commons. The section of greatest concern to the association includes this clause: 136 The Act is amended by adding the following after section 77.‍4: Offence — cash payments, donations or deposits of $10,000 or more 77.‍5 (1) Every person or entity that is engaged in a business, a profession or the solicitation of charitable financial donations from the public commits an offence if the person or entity accepts a cash payment, donation or deposit of $10,000 or more in a single transaction or in a prescribed series of related transactions that total $10,000 or more.  The CGA’s head honcho also gave us a few thoughts about the recent sports betting/match-event fixing scandals in the NBA, UFC and Major League Baseball.

To borrow a line from The Roastmaster Jeff Ross, the only thing John Levy has ever sugarcoated has been his morning bowl of Corn Flakes (Ed’s note. . . our tongue was securely fastened in our cheek while tapping the keyboard). Levy was his usual candid self in his latest conversation with Steve McAllister on the Gaming News Canada Show presented by Bede Gaming. The original founder of Headline Sports – which spawned theScore, Hardcore Sports Radio and theScore Bet – had lots to say about the news last week of ESPN and Penn Entertainment ending their 10-year agreement, and the end of ESPN Bet. Levy, who sold Score Gaming and Media to Penn in the summer of 2021 and left the company in 2024 along with his sons Aubrey, Benjie and Noah, discussed the failures that led to the demise of ESPN Bet and the breakup of Penn and Barstool Sports in the summer of 2023 (we asked Levy if he had any interest in pulling a Dave Portnoy and reacquiring theScore – he answered). He also talked about Penn’s problems in the digital gaming business both in the U.S. and Canada and had some thoughts about the comments of Penn CEO Jay Snowden last week that the company may have interest in the retail casino business here in the Great White North. The conversation also included the relationship between sports betting operators and sports media companies. And, some two weeks after a riveting World Series, Levy trumpeted theScore’s 10-year partnership deal with the Blue Jays that was announced on the same day Ontario’s open gambling market opened in April 2022.

On a new episode of the Gaming News Canada Show presented by Bede Gaming, Adam Rosenberg and CJ Buskey joined our humble host with some news of the breaking sort around their newish business Handigraphs. After launching a dashboard back in June to lend a hand to bettors of baseball, Rosenberg and Buskey will start this week to offer NHL data/analytics/metrics/numbers/etc. to lovers of puck. The two co-founders, who also do some moonlighting as co-hosts of the Dads Bet Baseball pod, talked about taking their passion for baseball and spreadsheets and turning it into a business. Buskey and Rosenberg also let us know they were ahead of the curve when it came to the 2025 edition of your Toronto Blue Jays and their wonderful run to their first World Series appearance since 1993. We asked the co-owners about the delay in launching their hockey product a month into the NHL regular season, and how the information being provided on Handigraphs will lend a hand to bettors wishing to lay a loonie or two on prop bets. Speaking of which, Rosenberg – whose work in the gaming industry prior to becoming a branding, communications and marketing consultant included stops at The Action Network and Better Collective – provided some thoughts and layers on the push in some corners these days to ban prop betting in the regulated North American industry. The noise around that debate became louder over the weekend as Emmanuel Clase and Luis Ortiz are both facing legal trouble amidst allegations of rigging pitches. Finally, we asked both Buskey and Rosenberg if Blue Jay fans can expect another sensational summer and fall in 2026. 

Some 50 days since joining iGaming Ontario as the president/CEO of the conductor and manager of the province’s competitive sports betting and online gambling market, Joseph Hillier was our guest on the Gaming News Canada Show presented by Bede Gaming. Hillier, who was introduced as Martha Otton’s success at the end of August and joined iGO in early September, talked about the process that led him to accept the position and leave the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario after 19 months as the AGCO’s chief strategy officer and corporate secretary. And how he can parlay his experience at the AGCO, and in the Ontario Ministry of the Attorney General during the time the province’s private sector-driven igaming market was created around the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. We also asked the new boss about the first weeks in his new office and his priorities, which we highlighted in the newsletter just days before Hillier’s start date – including the implementation of improved technology (especially with regards to data collection and reporting mechanisms), a long-awaited centralized self-exclusion program and improved protocols around anti-money laundering.