Gaming News Canada

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.

It’s been awhile since we had a conversation with Ron Segev, the founder of Segev LLP and one of the leading legal beagles when it comes to the business of sports betting and gaming.  So, the recent announcement that the British Columbia-based law firm was establishing some roots in Calgary ahead of the launch of regulated gambling in Alberta was the catalyst to have Segev join us on the Gaming News Canada Show. Among the topics discussed: · We’ve never heard the story of Segev LLP having a gaming component to its legal practice, so we asked;· While it’s expected the Alberta model will have similarities to Ontario’s regulated gambling marketplace, Segev says there are unique qualities in the western Canada province that will come into play;· A state-of-the-Ontario-market discussion, including with regards to the current Ontario Superior Court case brought forth by the provincial Attorney General’s office on liquidity;· Why it’s not a slam dunk for B.C. to follow suit with an open, legal marketplaceWe also asked Segev for his thoughts on what’s expected to be a rather robust fall.

On the eve of the start of the National Football League regular-season, Michael Cryan – the newish Head of Paid Social at Sportradar – was our guest on the Gaming News Canada Show to answer our queries about his new gig. Cryan, who landed at Sportradar after stints with social media behemoths TikTok and Meta, and is still settling into his new role, dug into the evolving use of short-form videos for betting brands and acquiring new customers. He also spoke about the integration of Sportradar’s data and technology into the video content of operators in the business of sports wagering and online gaming. 

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.

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.