Gaming News Canada

Back in the spring, Bettormetrics released a report analyzing suspension strategies and the impact they were having on sportsbook revenues in the U.S. of A.  Robert Urwin, the co-founder and managing director of the sports odds intelligence company, made his maiden appearance on the Gaming News Canada Show to dig deeper into the company’s data around betting on the 2023-24 NBA season. Included in the company’s analysis as FanDuel leaving an estimated $1.45 billion (Amarican bucks) in handle during the pro hoops campaign. Urwin, who’s worked in the gaming industry for more than two decades – including tenures with Unibet, Betfair and Ladbrokes before co-founding Bettormetrics almost three years ago – spoke about his current company’s place in the sports betting biz and further addressed suspension of wagers during live sporting events.  He also got into the evolving use of artificial intelligence in delivering data around sports and sports betting, as we enter a busy fall sports schedule with the return of the NFL, NBA and NHL regular seasons, MLB playoffs, and more.

At the beginning of August, iGaming Ontario announced a select bid by Integrity Compliance 360 and Australian company IXUP was selected to develop a centralized self-exclusion system for Ontario. Catherine Jarmain, iGO’s director of industry programs and monitoring, and IC360 president Eric Frank joined the latest episode of the Gaming News Canada Show to discuss the project to build on the existing player protections in Ontario. Frank explained the creation of the partnership between IC360 and its ProhiBet betting integrity product, and IXUP, which designed and delivered and operates Australia’s national self-exclusion register (BetStop). Jarmain spoke about both the lengthy process that led to the August 1 announcement, and the coming together of Ontario’s regulated operators and OLG in supporting the development of a centralized program for Canada’s only regulated industry. We also asked Frank about the IC360/IXUP partnership extending into other jurisdictions, including the anticipated opening of a regulated gambling industry in Alberta. Finally, both Jarmain and Frank paid tribute to Martha Otton, after iGO announced last week that its executive director is retiring at the end of the year.

So much for the dog days of summer, at least when it comes to the business of sports betting and gaming in Canada and the United States of America. Geoff Zochodne, the veteran gaming industry beat reporter for Covers, took a break from listening to hearings, transcribing interviews and tapping the keyboard to return as our guest on the latest episode of the Gaming News Canada Show. Among the many topics we covered over a lengthy conversation: - What is motivating DraftKings to, in Zochodne’s words, “plan to hit winning players with a ‘gaming tax surcharge’?- What make sense in terms of timing for regulated sports wagering and online gaming to arrive in Alberta and what will that marketplace look like?- Jeff Marek’s departure from Sportsnet appears to have involved both the NHL and Nevada Gaming Control Board.- And what’s the dilio with regards to sports betting regulators and limiting? Zochodne also provided his perspective on the Ontario Court of Appeal case considering the expansion of online poker and daily fantasy sports, consolidation of the U.S. sports betting industry (and why it hasn’t happened in Ontario), and more.

Did you hear the story about the NCAA assistant basketball coachwho decided less than a year into the COVID pandemic to leave coaching and create a startup business around tractor and truck pulling, and gaming? If not, you’re politely invited to listen in on our conversation with Full Pull Entertainment founder and CEO Chase Richardson on the latest episode of the Gaming News Canada Show. Richardson, whom we first met while he was on a networking/business development mission at last year’s Global Gaming Expo in Las Vegas, shared his journey of leaving college hoops to parlay (see what we did?) his farming family’s generational participation in truck and tractor pulling to build a business and expand engagement around the sport into the gaming sector with the launch of Full Pull Picks.  Richardson discussed with us the lessons learned from coaching and recruiting in the highly competitive U.S. college basketball environment into operating a startup business. And we asked the former NCAA player how he recruited Friend of Gaming News Canada Benjie Cherniak to join Full Pull as an advisor and investor. The Full Pull head honcho also talked about his desire to bring Full Pull Picks to the Ontario and Alberta (when regulated gambling comes to the western Canada province) markets, given the appetite for tractor and truck pulling throughout rural communities in the two provinces.

Court is in session this summer, at least the Court of Appeal for Ontario, which is being asked by the provincial government “to answer whether the Ontario’s igaming regime would remain lawful under the Criminal Code (of Canada) if the overall size of the potential gaming audience of the scheme, otherwise known as its liquidity, is expanded to include players outside of Canada”. The latest session, which took place July 6, included legal representation for the Attorney General of Ontario, the Attorney General of British Columbia, members of the Canadian Lottery Coalition, the Canadian Gaming Association, Flutter Entertainment (owners of PokerStars and FanDuel), NSUS Group Inc. and NSUS Limited (proprietors of GGPoker), and the Mohawk Council of Kahnawà:ke. For their respective perspectives on the court proceedings, the Gaming News Canada Show welcomed back CGA president/CEO Paul Burns and Jack Tadman, the managing partner of GME Law. Burns walked us through the CGA’s role in supporting the province’s request and provided some history around cross/jurisdiction/border online gaming and daily fantasy sports. Tadman added a layer or two, too, to that topic and spoke about what intrigues him about the case and the participants. Burns had some thoughts last month’s Canadian Gaming Summit and welcomed Kiron Interactive as the association’s newest member. Both Burns and Tadman addressed the ever-evolving nature of regulated sports betting and gaming, and we also asked Tadman for his reaction to the ongoing push by Senator Marty Deacon to pass Bill S-269, National Framework on Advertising for Sports Betting Act.  From the Dept. of In Case You Missed It, iGaming Ontario released Wednesdayits FY 2024-25 Q1 Market Performance Report.

Some four weeks after the curtain fell on the latest Canadian Gaming Summit, the Gaming News Canada Show welcomed back regular contributors Amanda Brewer and Phill Gray. The two gambling industry veterans provided their thoughts and layers to the annual gathering of operators, regulators, suppliers, politicians, etc., to the Metro Toronto Convention Centre. Brewer, who spoke on the Alberta: A new gold rush? panel at last month's summit, and Gray delved into the details of what regulated gambling will look like in the western Canada province, the influence Ontario's existing industry will have on the Alberta model and which operators will be heading west when that market hangs the Open For Business shingle. We also asked the resident GNC experts for their respective perspectives on the latest around the conversation about gambling advertising, and a recent callby the Canada Centre on Substance Use and Addiction for the introduction of a national strategy to address gambling-related harms in our home and native land. Finally, Gray and Brewer gave their reaction to the news last week that Betway is pulling its sports betting product out of the U.S. of A. (but continuing to operate both sports wagering and igaming in Ontari-ari-ari-o).

When Ontario opened its doors to legal sports betting and igaming industry in April 2022, one of the first companies to provide its online slots products to the marketplace was Play’n GO. In May, the Swedish-born company announced a partnership with Loto-Québec to bring its products to the lottery corp’s customers in La Belle Province. And last month, just before the start of the Canadian Gaming Summit, Play’n GO became a member of the Canadian Gaming Association. Saam Hafezi, the company’s North American business lead, and head of government affairs Shawn Fluharty took time away from their version of Meetings Madness during the summit to join us on the Gaming News Canada Show. Hafezi walked us through Play’n GO’s strategy for growing business in Canada and addressed the need for speed and delivering what the customers want in a highly competitive sector of the gambling industry.  Fluharty, who serves as the president of the National Council of Legislators from Gaming States, explained the challenges operators face in navigating the different sets of rules created by gambling regulators in U.S. states and Ontario.

On the second morning of the recent Canadian Gaming Summit, news broke of an exclusive partnership between BetMGM and Brian Christopher, the online slots and casino influencer with almost 700,000 subscribers on his YouTube channel. That afternoon, Christopher and his business partner Marco Bianchi sat down with us on the summit’s exhibition floor for an episode of the Gaming News Canada Show. Christopher and Bianchi, the co-founders of Palm Springs-based BC Ventures delivered some details on how the BetMGM partnership came to fruition, including Christopher’s to-come appearances for the giant igaming brand on YouTube, Facebook and Kick. We also asked Christopher about his success in building a following through BCSlots, FlipTheSwitch.com, BCSlots Cruises and Rudies Fan Club. Bianchi, a former colleague of your humble GNCS host a decade ago with Yahoo, weighed in on the company’s growth and Christopher’s connectivity with online gaming players and audiences. The two men also emphasized the commitment to responsible gaming, which Christopher will reinforce in the partnership with BetMGM.

Martha Otton was among the busiest attendees at the recent Canadian Gaming Summit. The executive director of iGaming Ontario was a ubiquitous presence around the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, whether it was speaking formally with operators in Ontario’s regulated sports betting and igaming market in her role as executive director, participating in a panel on the province’s successful industry with OLG president Duncan Hannay, OLG board chair Jim Warren and AGCO CEO/Registrar Dr. Karin Schnarr, and holding a cornucopia of informal conversations. Otton, who was put in charge of creating the conduct-and-manage subsidiary of AGCO in February 2021, also made time to join us on the latest episode of the Gaming News Canada Show. We solicited some additional thoughts to her words at the conference about the iGO-commissioned report conducted by Deloitte around economic contribution from Year 2 of a regulated industry which today includes almost 50 operators and 80 gambling websites/apps. Our interview occurred minutes after Alberta minister Dale Nally announced the western Canadian province will follow Ontario’s lead in opening a regulated gaming marketplace, so we asked Otton for her reaction. The iGO boss also addressed the ongoing evolution of legal gambling in Ontario and her still-young organization’s focus on improving its use of technology and data.