There were two major gaming conferences held in Toronto this past week — hey, why not? — and there was a lot said at the events in connection with Ontario sports betting.
That's because it has been more than two months since Canada’s most populous province launched a competitive iGaming market that is now full of online sportsbooks and internet-based casinos.
There was once just a single legal provider of online gambling in Ontario but, as of Friday, almost 30 authorized websites and their associated apps were taking bets in the province, including that of government-owned Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp.
The iGaming market prompted a lot of discussion this week at the SiGMA Americas and Canadian Gaming Summit events. Here’s an attempt at rounding up some of the important information for Ontario bettors, businesses, and other interested parties.
Operators galore
Ontarians who like gambling over the internet are going to have even more choices.
Already there are nearly 30 online sportsbooks, casinos, and poker rooms legally live in the province through its regulated framework. But, when the dust settles, there could be more than double that number in the province.
The buzz among operators and regulators is that there are potentially more than 70 brands interested in the regulated market. That is objectively a lot, especially since every other province in Canada has only one legal provider of internet gambling.
There are likely companies interested in applying to join Ontario’s regulated market that haven’t yet, and then those that are still working their way through the process.
PokerStars, for example, was issued an iGaming operator registration on Wednesday, but it hasn’t gone live in the province's iGaming market. The Flutter Entertainment PLC-owned company must execute an operating agreement with government agency iGaming Ontario before it does so.
Flutter-owned PokerStars was issued its iGaming operator registration by the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario on Wednesday, according to the regulator's registry. Tees up PS to launch soon in Ontario's regulated iGaming market.https://t.co/n9EZl2R6zk pic.twitter.com/Xw22NYtdFp
— Geoff Zochodne (@GeoffZochodne) June 9, 2022
This has begun raising the question of how many operators the Ontario market can support. After all, there’s only so much money to go around.
“I don't think you will forever see 60, 70 operators in a province of 15 million people,” said Brandt Iden, head of U.S. government affairs at Sportradar, during a panel at the SiGMA conference on Wednesday. “I just don't think that they can all be competitive and commercially successful.”
However, Iden also suggested it will take some time for the market to sort itself out. And there are still questions about how big the market is anyway.
Yes, the numbers are coming
Arguably, the sports-betting boom in the United States has shaped some of the thinking about the Ontario iGaming market.
South of the border, state after state has authorized wagering on sports in their own way. But one common denominator among the states has been some kind of regular reporting about the dollar amount of bets handled, revenue generated, and taxes earned from legal sports betting.
So, while there’s no statutory requirement for weekly or monthly reporting for iGaming Ontario (iGO), which is legally responsible for the iGaming market, there is an expectation that the agency will deliver the goods.
And some form of goods is about to be delivered.
With Ontario’s provincial election concluded on June 2, there will be numbers coming soon about the iGaming market. Exactly when is TBD, but the message from regulators was just that: Soon.
IGaming Ontario’s executive director, Martha Otton, said Wednesday at CGS that, according to the Parleh newsletter, “we intend to be transparent and hope to release (numbers) in the near future.”
Rules are rules
For some, the level of advertising about online sportsbooks and casinos in Ontario is a bit too much. But for others, there’s still more they’d like to tell the general public.
As noted above, the American experience has likely had some effect on how people think about Ontario’s iGaming market. This is probably true when it comes to Ontario’s regulatory ban on the public advertisement of gambling inducements, bonuses, and credits.
In U.S. states with legal sports betting, it’s not uncommon to see those offers advertised. In Ontario, bettors are only allowed to see them on an operator’s gaming site and via direct advertising after consenting to receive the promotions.
As regulators from the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO) noted during a Tuesday panel at the Canadian Gaming Summit, inducements can be important in acquiring new players, especially when a new market launches.
However, they also said there is research that connects ads about inducements with an increase in potential harm for vulnerable members of the public. The AGCO's standards for iGaming are aimed at reducing that potential harm.
That said, there’s interest in the industry in tweaking those restrictions for a few different reasons, including to help pull bettors away from websites in the “grey market” and to provide consumers with advice.
“I think as affiliates we have a unique opportunity to educate,” said Mark Harper, general manager of Covers, during a Thursday panel at the Canadian Gaming Summit. “And there's an education component around incentives as well.”
All eyes on Ontario
Ontario’s iGaming market has been live since April 4. One of the big questions now is if any other provinces will follow suit.
John Levy, CEO of theScore Bet, told an audience at the Canadian Gaming Summit on Thursday that they hope to take their product and offer it in other parts of Canada.
“And I think when they see how great Ontario has been, and is, and is operating, regulators in those provinces are going to sort of come to the same conclusion that Ontario came to a lot earlier,” Levy said.
But getting an Ontario-like model off the ground in other provinces will take political willpower, not just optimism from the industry. So far, that political interest seems to be lacking at the moment.
“Other provinces were interested in this (Ontario’s) model but didn’t have the political support at the top of the food chain,” Troy Ross, president of TRM Public Affairs, said during a SiGMA panel on Wednesday, according to the Parleh.
