Ontario – Bookielink

October 25, 2024

Ontario online total gambling handle continue growth in Q2, but sports betting dropped

Digital sports betting handle and online casino revenue grew again in Ontario, according to iGaming Ontario, which reported second-quarter results on Thursday (24 October).

Gamblers in Ontario wagered CA$18.7 billion ($13.5 billion/£10.4 billion/€12.5 billion) across all platforms, the highest amount bet during any quarter since digital sports betting and online gambling went live in April 2022. Handle in Q1 was CA$18.4 billion. Second-quarter handle for all forms of gambling was up 1.6% over the first quarter and 31.7% against the same period last year.

According to the report, handle does not include promotional deductions. iGaming Ontario does not report promotional deductions, hold or individual operator numbers. Fifty-three operators and 83 platforms were live in the province during the quarter.

Casino games = $16 billion in bets placed

On the online casino front, total bets placed were CA$16 billion, and gaming revenue was CA$738 million, up 35.4% against the same period in..

October 17, 2024

AGCO fines NorthStar Gaming CA$30,000 for geolocation fail

NorthStar Gaming's NorthStarbets.ca is available to consumers outside of Ontario, the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO) discovered. In a Wednesday (16 October) press release, the agency announced that it is fining NorthStar CA$30,000 (US$21,741/£16,712/€20,082)) for the violation.
Wagering and igaming platforms in Ontario are required to use geolocation services to ensure customers are located within the province. In August 2021 the Canadian government announced it was decriminalising single-event wagering. Ontario so far is the only province in which commercial online gambling is available.

Other provinces offer digital gambling through their lotteries, but do not yet have open, competitive markets. The expectation is that the next province to launch digital gambling will be Alberta.

According to the AGCO, it discovered the violation during a “third-party assessment” earlier this year. “Tests were conducted from physical locations in Quebec and New York state t..

September 26, 2024

Study suggests Canadian regulators should pace themselves when crafting RG rules

Within a year of launching legal online gambling in Canada, complaints about frequency and content of advertising were common. A new study suggests regulators are moving too quickly to appropriately address the issue.
The Canadian Gaming Association on Wednesday (25 September) released an academic and policy study. It posits that new gambling regulations in Canada are “evolving at a faster rate than the accompanying evidence base”. This could ultimately mean that regulations don’t tackle targeted issues and could be “insufficiently nuanced”.

The study – a “rapid review” – is designed to be informational for regulators and other stakeholders. GP Consulting conducted the study using a US-based team. The team included policy specialists from from Eilers & Krejcik and academics from UNLV’s International Gaming Institute and Washington State University.

The authors studied academic literature related to online sports betting and casino advertising and how it might inform responsible gamb..

August 16, 2024

State of the Union: DraftKings’ missteps, Missouri ballot measure

Welcome to iGB's State of the Union, a look at the biggest North American sports betting stories we've covered over the week and briefs on others we found interesting.
DraftKings has “no excuse” to consider surcharge “cash grab”
Less than an hour after Flutter’s second-quarter earnings call ended on Tuesday, DraftKings announced that, after hearing customer feedback, it will back off plans to impose a winners’ surcharge. The company announced the idea in early August, only to get swift and negative feedback.

Wall Street reacted positively on Wednesday. DraftKings’ shares were up as high as $33.50 per share before they settled at $32.06, up nearly 2%. While Rush Street Interactive and Penn Entertainment previously said they would not follow DraftKings’ lead, the company was clearly waiting to see how FanDuel would react.

“We have no plans to introduce a surcharge to winners,” CEO Peter Jackson said during the Q&A portion of the call. He then declined to entertain the issue..

April 4, 2024

Ontario market growing two years on, shifting focus to consumer protections

In the two years since single-event wagering was legalised in Ontario, Canada, one thing has become clear: consumers are sick of gambling ads. The most recent proof of that is a Maru Public Opinion poll, taken 7-8 February, of 1,534 Canadians who are also Maru Public Opinion panelists.

Of those surveyed, 59 percent said they favour a total ban on wagering advertising. Most also believe that operators are not acting responsibly and that there should be more government regulation.

While polls are often designed and taken to get a certain result, and a significant percentage of those polled by Maru were in the over-55 category, the sentiment matches the hue and cry that has been echoing through Canada since wagering went live on 4 April 2022. Since its launch, televised hockey games were flooded with advertisements for sportsbooks and have been since.

There is similar sentiment in some parts of the US. In 2023, for example, Senator Paul Tonko proposed a federal wagering advertising ..

August 26, 2022

Sports Interaction secures Ontario licence after Entain acquisition

Canadian online sports betting brand Sports Interaction has become the latest operator to secure an internet gaming licence from the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO).

The new licence will enable the operator to roll out its Sportsinteraction.com site and offer sports wagering to consumers across the province.

Sports Interaction joins a host of other brands to have secured licences in Ontario, which opened its legal online gambling market in April this year. Prior to the market opening, Sports Interaction had been a major brand in the Ontario grey market.

Bally’s, PokerStars, SkillOnNet and BetVictor are among the latest licensees, while operators such as theScore, PointsBet and Bet365 were approved before the market opened.

Earlier this year, Entain acquired Avid Gaming, the business behind Sports Interaction, from Middlebrook Investments Limited in a CAD$300m deal.

Avid Gaming leases Sports Interaction exclusively to the Mohawk Council of Kahnawà:ke and the Mohawk ..

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Tag: Ontario