Folgen
-
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.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
-
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.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
-
Fehlende Folgen?
-
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.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
-
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.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
-
Since Ontario’s regulated gaming industry opened its doors in April 2022, there’s been a steady rise in the popularity and corresponding revenue from online gaming.
Paul Adams, the director of marketing operations for BetMGM, made his maiden appearance on the Gaming News Canada Show alongside the company’s PR/data insights manager John Ewing for a chin wag about the operator’s increasing investment in igaming via the launch of Lightning Storm and WOF Casino, and exclusive slots based on movies and TV Shows such as The Godfather and Charlie’s Angels. Adams also got into the partnership announced this summer between BetMGM and gaming casino content creator Brian Christopher.
Ewing returned to the podcast for a conversation on the wave of wagering around the early weeks of the National Football League season, and how its customers in Ontario engaging in four-down football. We also asked Ewing about the impact Shohei Ohtani’s season for the ages has had on the business of betting, and the potential excitement around a Dodgers (Ohtani)-Yankees (Aaron Judge) World Series.
Finally, Adams confirmed that BetMGM is among the operators paying close attention to plans for launching a regulated sports betting and online gaming marketplace in Alberta (we recommend our recent GNCS episode with Amanda Brewer and Phill Gray for more on the Alberta situation).
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
-
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.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
-
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.Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
-
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.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
-
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.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
-
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 marketplace
We also asked Segev for his thoughts on what’s expected to be a rather robust fall.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
-
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.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
-
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.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
-
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.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
-
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.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
-
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.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
-
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.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
-
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).
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
-
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.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
-
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.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
-
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.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
- Mehr anzeigen
