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GiG awarded supplier licence in Ontario

Gaming Innovation Group (GiG) has been granted a supplier licence for Ontario by the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO).

Ontario will be the 22nd regulated market in which GiG has a footprint, with another four market entries pending. It will now be allowed to partner with operators based in the newly regulated Canadian province.

The registration granted to GiG by the AGCO covers its award-winning B2B sportsbook and PAM.

Claudio Caruana, general counsel for GiG, said: “In receiving the registration from the AGCO, we have reached another important milestone in our resolute commitment to supporting the iGaming industry for regulated markets, and we’re delighted to be prepared to power new and potential partners in the province.”

RELATED: Bally’s approved to launch BallyBet in Ontario market

Meanwhile, GiG has also announced a deal to provide its services to UK land-based casino operator Aspers Group.

Rideau Carleton Casino owners fined $227,000 for alleged rule violations

The operator of Ottawa’s Rideau Carleton Casino has been fined more than $227,000 by the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO) for dozens of alleged regulatory violations, including “repeatedly” failing to implement, follow and enforce anti-money laundering policies and procedures.

According to an audit of HR Ottawa LP, owned by Hard Rock International and better known as Hard Rock Ottawa, to assess compliance with the AGCO Registrar’s Standards for Gaming, Rideau Carleton Casino’s owners also allegedly advertised to people who had self-excluded from gambling activities, failed to sufficiently protect gaming systems and data from security vulnerabilities, and did not ensure that staff were properly trained. HR Ottawa, LP assumed responsibility for the day-to-day operations of the OLG Slots at Rideau Carleton Raceway in 2017.

The total fine levied is $227,250.

“The standards exist to protect Ontarians and audits of gaming operators are one of the tools the AGCO regularly uses as part of its regulatory oversight of the gaming industry,” the AGCO said in a statement.

According to a statement from the AGCO, there are 36 alleged violations by HR Ottawa LP, including:

  •  Provided advertising and marketing materials to individuals who had self-excluded from gambling activities.
  •  Repeatedly failed to implement, follow, and enforce required anti-money laundering policies and procedures.
  •  Failed to address matters of concern identified by internal auditors in a timely manner.
  •  Maintained a compliance oversight function that was not independent of the company’s operations, as is required.
  •  Failed to sufficiently protect gaming systems and data from security vulnerabilities in accordance with established industry and technology good practices.
  •  Not ensured that staff completed necessary training in important areas like anti-money laundering policies and procedures.

“The AGCO has the mandate and the responsibility to ensure casinos are operating with honesty, integrity, and in the public interest,” AGCO CEO and Registrar Tom Mungham said in a statement. “These penalties are intended to drive the improvements needed at the Rideau Carleton Casino, and we will be carefully monitoring the casino’s activities to ensure these significant audit findings are addressed.”

RELATED: AGCO appoints new Chief Legal Officer

The AGCO says the operator of the Rideau Carleton Casino can appeal the Registrar’s findings to the Licence Appeal Tribunal.

In a statement to CTV News, Rideau Carleton Casino general manager Helen MacMillan said the “majority of issues” related to the audit have been “aggressively corrected.”

“Rideau Carleton Casino takes this matter extremely seriously. We have been in regular communication with the AGCO and have been working actively and definitively to address all issues,” MacMillan said. “The majority of issues related to the audit have been aggressively corrected, including and not limited to, change in personnel. We will continue to improve and address any and all regulatory issues to ensure full compliance moving forward.”

In recent weeks, the AGCO has also handed out fines relating to Ontario’s new regulated online gaming and betting and market, first sanctioning PointsBet Canada and BetMGM and then fining DraftKings for alleged breaches of advertising standards.

The fine for Hard Rock Ottawa, though, far exceeds those other sanctions. DraftKings was hit with a $100,000 fine, while the penalties for BetMGM and PointsBet Canada were $48,000 and $30,000, respectively.

Image: Hard Rock Ottawa

PointsBet to livestream sports in app via IMG Arena partnership

PointsBet customers will have access to live streams across multiple sports all within the PointsBet app via a new partnership with sports data and technology hub IMG Arena.

PointsBet will now offer bettors on-demand streaming access to more than 40,000 premium games and matches through a two-year streaming partnership with London-headquartered IMG Arena.

IMG Arena has one of the largest portfolios of live streaming content in the world, distributing over 45,000 hours of content annually on behalf of more than 200 federations, associations, and events. Its premium content includes properties such as Major League Soccer, the ATP Tour, FIVB volleyball competitions and leagues, EuroLeague basketball games, World Snooker, World Table Tennis, and much more.

“Our north star is in-play betting, and the ability to offer our users with on-demand streaming content to elevate live betting is paramount,” said PointsBet USA CEO Johnny Aitken. “PointsBet is recognized as the home of in-play betting, and this partnership with IMG Arena solidifies our position as a leader in this space. We’re thrilled to tap into innovative concepts like this to improve the live betting experience for our users, all while bringing forth new ways to increase fan engagement throughout the year.”

Not only do users with a funded PointsBet account in any of PointsBet’s live markets now have 24/7/365 streaming availability, but they also have immense access to tennis, a sport that is rapidly rising in popularity for sports bettors, with over 10,000 ATP Challenger Tour matches and close to 25,000 total tennis matches. For tennis, PointsBet has seen a 163 per cent increase in overall handle as well as a 189 per cent increase in live handle.

Brian Clayton, senior director of sales at IMG Arena, said: “We are excited to partner with PointsBet, one of North America’s leading and most innovative sports betting operators. The deal allows players to improve their betting experience safely and significantly by increasing access to engaging, official content and watching more of the sports that they are betting on live.”

PointsBet is currently operational for sports betting in Ontario and 10 U.S. states.

SBC announces five finalists competing in SBC First Pitch

SBC has chosen five innovative industry startups to compete in the final of the second edition of the SBC First Pitch at the SBC Summit North America at Meadowlands Exposition Center, New Jersey on July 14.

Each startup will have the opportunity to pitch its business plans to a panel of judges with expertise in venture capital investments within the industry.

The five finalists taking part in the second edition of the SBC First Pitch North America contest are:

  • Kero Gaming: a white label in-game micro betting platform with a vision to disrupt the sports betting experience over the next decade by offering an interactive social environment for the bettors.
  • BetSwap Limited: a company that provides fully integrated marketplaces for both platform providers and operators. Each party will have access to a marketplace where they can buy and sell active bets.
  • STX: sports betting exchange inspired by traditional financial markets that offers a fair and real-time marketplace for users to bet on the outcome of sporting events.
  • Sparket – The Social Betwork: a company providing software solutions that enable operating partners to expand their sportsbook offerings and reach via a proprietary and customizable pool wagering system.
  • CapWize: a company providing sports bettors with real-time dashboards that include cutting-edge simulation data to help bettors make more intelligent sports picks.

A judging panel comprising Anika Howard (President and CEO, WONDR NATION), David Williams (Principal, Las Vegas Sands), Edward King (Co-Founding Partner and Co-CIO, Acies Investments), Kathleen Coviello (Chief Economic Transformation Officer, NJEDA) and Matt Davey (CEO, Tekkorp Capital) will decide the winner of the competition.

RELATED: SBC Summit North America to bring together industry’s best in July

Sue Schneider, VP of Growth & Strategy, Americas at SBC said: “The judging panel was challenged to choose the top entries among the submissions we received for this year’s SBC First Pitch competition. All entries were truly outstanding, and each of these startups has a lot of potential in the industry, even if they did not make it to the finals. As for the chosen startups – may the best team win!”

The winning startup will secure a prize package valued at more than $60,000 to help its development and growth plans. The package includes:

  • A $25,000 investment from HappyHour.io, a seed and early-stage accelerator for iGaming.
  • One year of sports betting subscription worth $20,000 from Eilers & Krejcik Gaming, a research and consulting firm servicing the gaming equipment, interactive gaming, and sports betting sectors.
  • A promotional package from SBC Media worth $12,200, including six months of advertising on SBC Americas and the SBC Americas Newsletter, and a unique editorial promoting the business.
  • An exclusive brand or web design package worth $2,800 from Vegas Kings.

Last year’s First Pitch competition saw two joint winners – Canadian digital media specislist The Parleh Media Group and Maryland-based independent sports betting ratings agency SharpRank.

All delegates at SBC Summit North America will have access to watch the competition at the SBC First Pitch.

Greater Sudbury withdraws from Kingsway Entertainment District

After five years of negotiations, planning, delays, and controversies, Sudbury city council has unanimously voted to reject a proposed $215-million budget for an arena and event centre, along with a hotel and casino, at the Kingsway Entertainment District, effectively ending the city’s involvement with the project.

CBC News reports that the council voted on July 12 after a report from city staff in which the budget for the project more than doubled from its original $100 million estimate in 2017.

The Kingsway Entertainment District could still continue as a private venture but the city will no longer be playing any part.

Sudbury Mayor Brian Bigger said he believes the vote was a positive for the city’s future.

“We had a significant change in information that we were provided by staff just within the last few weeks,” he said, per CBC. “And I think there was clearly a consensus on council that we’re not willing to take on new additional debt. The price tag of roughly $215 million, that was provided as an estimate, was just too much.”

Bigger said the city would have had to borrow an additional $115 million to cover the project, at an interest rate of more than five per cent, and that approving the project would have meant a two per cent increase in municipal taxes for the next 30 years.

Had the project continued beyond this stage, the city would have been required to spend around another $3 million to finalize the design and final budget for the arena. Ward 11 Coun. Bill Leduc and Ward 5 Coun. Robert Kirwan proposed an amendment that would have advanced the project to that stage with a caveat the city would not spend more than $150 million on the arena and event centre, but the amendment was voted down 10 to two.

The project’s private partners, including Genesis Hospitality Management (hotel), Gateway Casinos (casino), and developer Dario Zulich recently said they remained on board with the project, reports sudbury.com, but it remains to be seen where they stand following today’s decision of city council.

In December, work on the development had been paused prior to the site grading stage at the request of Gateway, but the casino company quickly reiterated it remained on board with the casino project.

Jeff MacIntyre, a past chair of the Sudbury Downtown Business Improvement Area (BIA), said he was happy with the outcome from council. He added that his issue was with the use of public money to develop the site, and stressed that he has no issue if Gateway and Genesis want to still go ahead and build a casino and hotel, respectively, at the Kingsway Entertainment District.

SIGA aiming to launch Saskatchewan online gaming site by November

Saskatchewan Indian Gaming Authority (SIGA) hopes the new online gaming and betting platform being prepared for Saskatchewan punters will be up and running by November, according to the organization’s director of communications.

Last month, SIGA announced that the British Columbia Lottery Corporation (BCLC)’s PlayNow platform, already the only regulated online gambling site in both British Columbia and Manitoba, had been selected to power Saskatchewan’s new site. At that time, it was suggested that the site would launch by the end of the year.

However, SIGA’s director of communications and media relations Alanna Adamko now says the site could be operational by November in time for this year’s Grey Cup, which is being held in Regina, Sask. on Nov. 20, as reported by Sports Handle.

Adamko added that SIGA chose BCLC as their partner for the site because of its longstanding history of successful operations and commitment to responsibly gaming through its GameSense platform.

“BCLC has a mature, established platform successfully operating in B.C. and Manitoba, and their depth of knowledge in the Canadian market strengthens their position,” Adamko said.

SIGA, a non-profit which has been running Saskatchewan gaming since the 1990s, will run the Saskatchewan online gaming site in collaboration with the Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations (FSIN) after the province struck a deal last fall to establish a 50/50 revenue-sharing agreement. That makes SIGA the only First Nations operator in Canada to have an online gaming deal with any level of government.

SIGA is considering looking to launch custom-developed games for the Saskatchewan market, reports Sports Handle.

Adamko also suggested that the organization will consider launching a sportsbook at multiple casino venues in the province. SIGA operates seven First Nations-owned casinos in Saskatchewan.

“SIGA is presently reviewing floor plan designs for two properties to refresh and remodel for a sportsbook and food and beverage experience,” Adamko said.

“SIGA will look to expand its entertainment offerings at sites with a strategy of convergence between online and brick-and-mortar,” she added. “We plan on utilizing a click-and-brick approach to drive customers to our site locations.”

Adamko also said that SIGA will look to draw customers away from Saskatchewan’s significant grey market by promoting its strong established brand and through sign-up and frequent bonus promotional offers, as well as with PlayNow’s mature and easy-to-use sign-up process. SIGA will also have to compete on the physical betting side with the Sport Select platform that is available at some retail locations through the Western Canadian Lottery Corporation. SIGA says its online sports betting product through PlayNow will offer specialized event wagering such as for the Oscars and U.S. elections, which aren’t available through that provider.

Nuvei expanding payment options for North American operators with GAN

Payment platform Nuvei has entered a strategic partnership with GAN to integrate its payments solutions into the latter’s SaaS gaming platform solution and provide more payment options for gaming operators across North America.

The deal was originally intended for the Ontario market but has been extended to cover the entire U.S. and Canada market and will see Nuvei technology integrated into GAN’s software to ensure players can instantly deposit and request instant payouts via its cashier tech.

Players can choose to cash out via multiple regional and alternative payment methods as well as traditional cards such as Interac and digital wallets.

RELATED: Smooth payment solutions are key to gaming’s new world

Philip Fayer, CEO and Chair of Nuvei, said: “Offering gaming operators a fully customizable payments platform, including local acquiring solutions and a full suite of payment methods through a single integration, is at the heart of our vision for the future of payments in both gaming and broader verticals.

“Being able to partner with GAN to bring this vision to North American operators is a great step forward for an industry poised for further significant growth in the next few years. GAN is renowned throughout gaming for its market-leading software, which is why we believe this is such an exciting partnership.”

SaskGaming revenue doubled in 2021-22 amid reopening

The Government of Saskatchewan has announced that SaskGaming reported a $19.1 million net income in 2021-22, boosted by increased revenues from the reopening of provincially operated casinos.

While casinos in the province had remained closed for the first quarter of 2021-22, the rest of the fiscal year saw more normalized operations.

“We netted $19.1 million which was an increase from 2020-21 where we realized a $13.4 million loss,” Shanna Schulhauser, spokesperson for SaskGaming, told CTV News. “So really nice to see us sort of heading in that right direction.”

The corporation reported a revenue of $77.8 million for the fiscal year – up from 30.9 million in 2020-21. Expenses also rose last year, at $58.7 million in 2021-22 compared to 44.3 million in 2020-21. Revenue from slot machines make up the bulk of money earned in 2021-22, followed by funds generated through table games, food and beverages.

“SaskGaming saw steady improvement in 2021-22, as we emerged from the era of pandemic-related restrictions,” Minister Responsible for SaskGaming Don Morgan said. “With nearly a full year of operations under its belt, SaskGaming was able to contribute $9.6 million to the province’s General Revenue Fund to support the First Nations Trust, Community Initiatives Fund and Clarence Campeau Development Fund.”

Provincially operated casinos in the province had been forced to close on two different occasions during the pandemic. Those periods were used to carry out renovations and add more technology to the casinos’ operations.

“We’re about 80 to 85 per cent complete right now,” Schulhauser said. “We’ll eventually move into the show lounge in the start of next year for a couple of months and then be heading over to Moose Jaw to make some renovations there.”

The next step is online gaming and sports betting.

SaskGaming signed a contract with the Saskatchewan Indian Gaming Authority (SIGA) and the British Columbia Lottery Corporation (BCLC) in June that will see the organizations provide regulated online gambling to Saskatchewan players.

BCLC’s PlayNow.com was selected as the vendor and will feature 400+ entertaining casino, Live Casino, poker, and sports-betting products. SIGA,  a nonprofit which operates seven First Nations-owned casinos in Saskatchewan, will operate the platform in the province and development of the site will begin immediately with the goal of being operational by the end of 2022.

AGCO appoints new Chief Legal Officer

The Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO) has announced that Josée Turcotte will join the commission as the newest member of its Executive Management Team, serving as Chief Legal Officer, effective July 18, 2022.

An AGCO release says Turcotte has extensive executive management, legal counsel, and governance experience in financial services and capital markets in both private and public sectors. Most recently, she served on the Executive & Risk Committees of HSBC Bank Canada, and as SVP of Corporate Secretary and Head of Governance of the Bank and its subsidiaries.

Her prior roles include Secretary, Deputy Secretary, and Independent Adjudicative Counsel to the Ontario Securities Commission, as well as Senior Legal Counsel at the Competition Tribunal.

“Josée has broad expertise combining regulation, disciplinary matters and enforcement, administrative law and public interest, corporate and commercial law, competition law, consumer/investor protection, corporate governance, and litigation matters,” continued the release.

Turcotte has also been a Program Faculty Member at Osgoode Hall Law School, an Adjunct Professor of Law at the University of Ottawa’s Faculty of Law, and a guest lecturer at both institutions on various topics such as competition law, principle-based regulation, securities litigation and enforcement, and evidence.

She currently serves on the Boards of both the Toronto French School and Downsview Aerospace Innovation and Research and has previously served on the Boards of the Governance Professionals of Canada, l’Alliance Française de Toronto, the Society of Adjudicators & Regulators, the Canadian Council of Administrative Tribunals, as well as holding the position of Chair of the Ontario Bar Association – Public Sector Lawyers section.

IGT completes acquisition of game developer iSoftBet

International Game Technology (IGT) has completed its acquisition of iSoftBet for €160m in cash in a move that will see the company more than double its digital content library.

IGT will take full control of the developer, whose content will expand the IGT PlayDigital catalogue to approximately 225 proprietary games. IGT’s interactive arm will also stretch its online casino inventory through the addition of iSoftBet’s proprietary-built aggregation platform, which will allow the company to distribute third-party games to clients.

iSoftBet’s data-led marketing and user engagement tools will also become accessible to IGT.

At the time of the announcement of the definitive agreement in April, IGT CEO Vince Sadusky said the acquisition of iSoftBet “will provide market-tested proprietary digital content, advanced game aggregation capabilities, scalable promotional tools, analytics, and strong creative talent to IGT’s PlayDigital operations.”