Gaming News Canada

The Responsible Gambling Council recently released its 2023-24 annual report, which included 32 igaming sites across 20 operators being accredited through the council’s RG Check program over the past year, and the Ontario government delivering an unprecedented $9 million investment to the Responsible Internet Gambling Fund over three years. Shelley White, who is leaving the RGC after an eight-year tenure as its chief executive officer at the end of the year, and VP, marketing and communications Elaine McDougall joined us for a new episode of the Gaming News Canada Show. White and McDougall dug a little deeper into the latest annual report, and spoke with us about: The ongoing efforts of the council and other stakeholders in the sports betting and igaming industry in Canada and globally to inform and educate people on gambling safely, and the use of artificial intelligence to help amplify messaging in the future;The RGC’s new partnership with Maple Leaf and Sports Entertainment, which debuted last Saturday during the Toronto Maple Leafs’ home opener at Scotiabank Arena;The council’s participation in the creation of a regulated gaming marketplace in Alberta;White’s testimony in front of the Senate transport and communications committee earlier this month on sports betting advertising;The continuing momentum when it comes to women landing executive suite positions across the industry. White also let us know that the RGC is expected to announce her success by the end of November, and gave us some thoughts on her eight-year run. McDougall also spoke about the impact White has had on the council in bringing a much-appreciated cultural shift to the organization and leading its evolution as a business.

Amazon Prime dropped the puck on its NHL digital streaming journey across Canada over the past week, first with the debut of NHL Coast to Coast last Thursday followed by Prime Monday Night Hockey while we were awakening from our Thanksgiving turkey coma. Sports Interaction has a segment in the first hour of the Thursday NHL Coast to Coast broadcast. To learn more about the Homegrown Bet of the Night segment, veteran sports broadcaster David Bastl – now SIA’s chief betting officer – was our guest on the Gaming News Canada Show. Bastl provided more details on the SIA integration (with a helping hand on the production end from Parleh Media Group) into the Amazon Prime hockey broadcasts – Thursday nights deliver a Red Zone-like experience for NHL fans – and revisited his first picks from opening night.  We also asked Bastl about the ongoing evolution of professional sports leagues, rightsholders and sports wagering operators when it comes to integrating betting information and insight into a game broadcast – including The Locker Room show produced by Homestand and available on the Sports Interaction app. He also spoke about his background in media and betting, including his work on the Inside the Lines NFL betting show, and The Mike Richards Show in the early years of TSN Radio.

It turns out that the road to regulated sports betting and online gaming in Alberta has hit a pothole or two. Tom Nightingale of Canadian Gaming Business reported Monday that more time is needed for the provincial government in the land of the Oilers and Flames to meet with various stakeholders with potential skin in the game of a legal gambling marketplace. For further context on this story, Jessica Welman – the editor-in-chief of both SBC Americas and Canadian Gaming Business – made her return to the Gaming News Canada Show. Welman joined GNCS host Steve McAllister before getting on yet another plane. . . this time to Las Vegas for this week’s Global Gaming Expo, to provide her insight on a few topics, including: ·      Some key takeaways from the recent SBC conference in Lisbon·      Teeing up G2E this week·      The buzz around sweepstakes in the U.S. of A. these days, including her recent conversation with Novig co-founder/CEO Jacob Fortinsky·      The latest on efforts in the Canadian Senate to pass a bill which would create a framework for sports betting advertising in our home and native land·      And other matters pertaining to legal gambling in the U.S., including what’s happening (or not) in California, Texas and Florida.

The Senate Committee on Transport and Communications resumed hearing from witnesses at the beginning of October with the proposed Bill-269 to create a national framework for advertising on sports betting. Among the folks making the trek to the nation’s capital to appear in front of the committee was Canadian Gaming Association grand poobah Paul Burns. Burns returned to the Gaming News Canada Show to discuss his appearance in Ottawa, and the continued evolution of advertising in Ontario’s regulated sports betting and online gaming marketplace. From Tom Nightingale’s reporting in Canadian Gaming Business: Burns had argued in his opening statement that he doesn’t believe S-269 is necessary, as most of what the bill aims to do is already being done. In particular, he pointed to Ontario’s advertising restrictions and stipulations around responsible gaming messaging, noting that anecdotally, Ontario has seen a far higher uptake of RG messaging and practical tools than operators are legally required to offer. “There’s been a lot of emotional discussion about gaming advertising over the last couple of years because people have seen more of it,” noted Burns. “But there’s also been some absence of facts and data and understanding.” The CGA president/CEO also provided an update on the road to regulation in Alberta, including Minister Dale Nally’s pending appearance on a panel Wednesday alongside Burns, AGCO chief Dr. Karin Schnarr and iGaming Ontario executive director Martha Otton (you can expect the soon-to-retire iGO ED will deliver the latest quarterly results on the Ontario industry) at this week’s Global Gaming Expo in Las Vegas. We also asked Burns for his thoughts on the state of regulated gambling today across the true north, strong and free.

Many folks employed in the world of sports betting and gaming are congregating in Portugal this week for SBC Lisbon. That includes Gaming News Canada Show regular panelist and industry consultant, Amanda Brewer, who will be lending her voice along with other stakeholders in the Canadian marketplace (NorthStar Gaming’s Michael Moskowitz and Jared Beber from Bet99 are among the speakers on a “Is the goose still golden” panel Wednesday around regulated gambling in Canada and the U.S. Speaking of which, Brewer and fellow consultant Phill Gray returned to the GNCS for a roundtable that was heavy on talk about the pending regulated market in Alberta. We tackled the rumblings about an opening date , the potential tax rate and other costs of doing business in the western Canada province, a consultative process which so far has been different than what operators experienced in the lead-up to the opening of regulated sports wagering and iGaming in Ontari-ari-ari-o, and the reaction from the Canadian Gaming Association to the results of a report by an Ottawa-based think tank earlier this month with the recommendation that Alberta shouldn’t follow Ontario’s lead in creating regulated gambling beyond what’s currently offered by Alberta Liquor, Gaming & Cannabis. (Ed’s Note: We reached out to the communications folks at the office of Minister Dale Nally requesting an update on the province’s plans. After recording this episode, we received a response including: “We’d be happy to give an update, however due to a busy schedule we don’t have much availability until the first to second week in October”. We expect the minister will be in Lisbon and will participate in a Thursday roundtable on Canada hosted by Alon Segev of Segev LLP. Also, ICYMI, Ron Segev was our guest on the podcast a few weeks ago to provide his take on Alberta.) Both Brewer and Gray weighed in on the proposal by two U.S. senators to create a federal Supporting Affordability and Fairness with Every Bet (SAFE) Act. Gray also addressed our questions into a recent roundtable organized by the Massachusetts Gaming Commission into operators placing limits on sports bettors (Steve Ruddock’s thoughts in his Straight to the Point newsletter is a good read). Finally, our two panelists also weighed in on the pending retirement of IGaming Ontario executive director Martha Otton, and the challenges facing her successor.

There were tremors through the Canadian sports business and media landscape this morning when Sportico’s Scott Soshnick and Kurt Badenhausen broke the news that Rogers was acquiring Bell’s 37.5 per cent stake in Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment for $4.7 billion, subject to the approval of sports leagues tied to MLSE’s ownership of the Toronto Maple Leafs, Toronto Raptors and Toronto FC.From the reporting done by Soshnick and Badenausen of the U.S.-based sports business publication:Rogers already owned 37.5% of MLSE, and now puts a total valuation of Rogers’ ownership of the entity at $9.4 billion Canadian dollars. Rogers also owns the Toronto Blue Jays, who are worth $2.27 billion, according to Sportico. Larry Tanenbaum owns the remaining 25% stake in MLSE, which also includes the Canadian Football League’s Toronto Argonauts.Jonah Sigel, the go-to person for the latest news on the Canadian sports media industry (you can find him on X at @yyzsportsmedia), and Parleh Media Group co-founder Mark Silver hopped on their laptops for a special edition of the Gaming News Canada Show. Among the topics discussed:The impact of today’s announcement on the sports media business in our home and native land, including the expiration of the NHL’s $5.2 billion, 12-year broadcasting contract with Rogers at the end of the 2025-26 season;Bell Media securing content rights for the Maple Leafs and Raptors for the next two decades;The potential impact of the announcement on Rogers and the leaders – led by Edward Rogers - of MLSE and its franchises, and the Blue Jays; The relevance of the sports and entertainment behemoth having a face for the organization a la George Steinbrenner, Jerry Jones or Mark Cuban (which got us talking about Bruce Garrioch’s feature on Ottawa Senators owner Michael Andlauer in today’s Ottawa Citizen);And of course, some thoughts from a regulated gambling industry respective given the dollars spent on media and partnerships with pro sports organizations by legal operators in Ontario and provincial lottery and gaming corporations across the country.

Some 18 months ago, your humble host sat in a New York restaurant with three guys who came friends while attending UCLA and took the startup plunge to create WagerWire.Today, the Los Angeles-based business has established a place in the sports wagering and daily fantasy sports trading marketplace while using social and media platforms to build a community of sports aficionados. The co-founders of WagerWire, Zach Doctor, Travis Geiger and Guy Dotan were our guests on the Gaming News Canada Show to discuss the company’s ongoing growth, including this summer’s announcement of establishing fantasy and media verticals to “operate sports products and other types of gaming independently of sports betting”.We also asked the trio about the opportunities in Ontario’s regulated gambling marketplace, and the soon-to-come regulated industry in Alberta, their newish foray into horse racing. Dotan also lent us his expertise on the continuing challenges with new technologies.And, our conversation included some NFL talk in a week when the four-down gridiron giant kicked off its regular season, and the American Gaming Association announcedthat an unprecedented $35 billion (Amarican dollars) will be wagered on the league this season. 

Earlier this month, the British Columbia Lottery Corporation bid adieu to the old days of sports bettors stopping by the local convenience store to make their picks on paper with the launch of its ProLine digital sportsbook.Brett Hanson, BCLC’s Manager – Retail Sports was our latest guest on the Gaming News Canada Show to dig into the deets of the new ProLine, which went live just before the start of the NFL regular season. Hanson, who previously worked for offshore sportsbooks before joining the provincial lottery corporation in April 2018, talked about the race to launch ProLine before the start of the four-down football campaign and the challenges and opportunities around creating a new and improved sportsbook product for retail customers. That includes some new features and an expanded offering of wagers for Lions, Canucks, Seahawks and other favourite teams of sports fans in Canada’s most-western province. We also asked Hanson about changing the habits of ProLine customers to move into the digital world, and on the opportunity to educate those customers about responsible gambling with the new sportsbook.