iGaming Ontario has announced it is now seeking proposals in its ongoing efforts to construct a centralized self-exclusion solution for gaming in the province.

From now until April 24, iGO is accepting bids for a software-as-a-service (SaaS) project that intends to make it as easy as possible for provincial sports bettors to voluntarily ban themselves from any regulated website. The successful bidder will collaborate with iGO on a multi-year project to build the program. The project term is listed on the iGO website as five years.

“Partnering with iGO on this multi-year project offers a unique and exciting opportunity for forward-thinking and innovative organizations prepared to make a lasting positive impact on the igaming landscape in Ontario,” said the agency, which works hand-in-hand with the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO), the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation (OLG), and the Government of Ontario to regulate the private-sector online gaming market.

Ontario‘s online gaming market has been open for business for nearly two years and now boasts around 50 operators and roughly 70 different websites for online casino gambling, sports betting, and poker. For the quarter that ended Dec. 31, iGO reported that $17.2 billion was wagered legally by 1.2 million active player accounts in Ontario.

However, the market still lacks a centralized self-exclusion system for players with problem gambling concerns to mitigate their own risk.

The goal is to establish a system that holds the trust and confidence of the Ontario industry’s range of stakeholders, including players and operators. iGO spent months putting together the regulatory framework before announcing in November that it would soon open the RFP process.

iGO’s must-haves

The proposed system is designed to enable players to self-exclude easily and at any time from all regulated iGaming operators in Ontario, including all private operators and OLG, through a single registration process.

The iGO says the system needs to be “player-focused, supportive, transparent, secure, robust, and viable.”

In its RFP release, the agency is looking for bids that satisfy three key criteria:

• Integrates seamlessly with all Ontario igaming operators’ systems, including Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation (OLG)’s igaming site.
• Provides anyone 19+ with easy access to create and manage their self-exclusion profile.
• Implements Know Your Customer (KYC) identity verification, registration, renewal, and reinstatement processes that are intuitive, simple, and offer supporting information.

More details on the Centralized Self-Exclusion (CSE) Solution, along with other iGO current and past bid opportunities, can be found on iGO’s MERX page.