Gaming News Canada Show

Four years ago today, a newsletter covering the business of sports betting, igaming, and other topics of interest, was born. On that day, we covered the passing of the second reading of Bill C-218 in the House of Commons.

Since then, Gaming News Canada – has produced almost 150 newsletters and some 600 audio/visual shows to deliver the latest industry news and insights to our still-growing list of subscribers. This morning, we thank everyone who has had a hand in the success of our neighbourhood media outlet, and there are far too many to mention by name in this space.

To help us celebrate Anniversaire Numero Quatre, Parleh Media Group co-founder and CE0 (and the person giving your humble correspondent a friendly but firm push to create Gaming News Canada) Mark Silver helped us take a walk down memory lane with a special focus on the relationship between media and the regulated gambling industry in Ontario, and the rest of Canada.

Then, long-time Friend of Gaming News Canada Amanda Brewer and journalist Dave Briggs joined us for their respective thoughts and layers on the past four years. That included a discussion on the Ontario market, which celebrates its third anniversary at the beginning of April and so far continues to wait for the consolidation many of us predicted back in April 2022. Brewer also provided an update and some advice for the folks in charge of creating an expanded legal sports betting and gaming business in Alberta.

Both Briggs and Brewer weighed in on Briggs’s interview last week with PointsBet Canada boss Scotty Vanderwel about the potential impact of Donald Trump’s tariff war on the Ontario industry. We also asked Brewer about the Canadian Lottery Coalition-supported legal action taken by the Manitoba Liquor and Lotteries Corporation against offshore betting site Bodog.

Finally, we asked our two guests to take out their crystal balls to gaze into the future, and specifically asked Briggs about Canada’s horse racing industry and the opportunities/challenges around betting.

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There’s a full-out sprint across the sports industry these days when it comes to exploiting data, technology, and more recently, artificial intelligence.

Late last year, the founder/CEO of Sportradar, Carsten Koerl referred to the “global revolution” happening around sports analytics. The company’s senior vice-president of fan engagement, Patrick Mostboeck joined us from Austria for a new episode of the Gaming News Canada Show presented by GBG Plc.

Mostboeck weighed in on several topics including:

• Sportradar’s ongoing growth with its betting technology and solutions, and sports content, technology and services sectors.
• The company’s expanding relationship with the NBA to increase fan engagement globally through their exclusive data partnership.
• Riffing off an op-ed of sorts by Koerl on the Sportradar website back in October.
• The company’s evolving support of legal sportsbook operators in North America, and other parts of the world. That includes, on the eve of the start of the Australian Open, the introduction of micro markets for ATP matches.
• And, Sportradar’s partnerships with the NHL, men’s professional tennis tour (ATP) and NASCAR.

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There were some raises of Spockian eyebrows last week when Flutter Entertainment, the owners of FanDuel, announced an expected drop in revenue of some $370 million (Amarican bucks) thanks to its NFL customers getting the better of the books this season.

So, as the four-down football league’s postseason got underway with wild card weekend, Gaming News Canada Show regular Phill Gray – who led trading operations at Sports Interaction for more than two decades – rejoined the podcast. Gray and your humble host dug a little deeper into the reasons behind the bettors taking advantage of sportsbooks, and also looked ahead at the challenges and opportunities for the betting populace in the race to next month’s Super Bowl.

The 2024 U.S. presidential election and Justin Trudeau’s pending departure as leader of the Liberal Party here in our home and native land has reinvigorated wagering on politics, including in Ontario’s regulated gambling industry (as Dave Briggs reported in Friday’s newsletter). We asked Gray for his thoughts on that topic, too.

Finally, we took a quick peek at stories to watch in the sports betting space in 2025, including the odds of regulated gambling coming to Alberta, the crypto/betting story, and the potential impact around the growing popularity of women’s sports on sportsbook operators.

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The latest episode of the Gaming News Canada Show presented by GBG Plc is one of the two-segment variety.

Paul Burns, the president and CEO of the Canadian Gaming Association, returned to the podcast for a rapid-round conversation including the impact of the current turbulence around the Canadian political system on the gambling industry. The proroguing of Parliament by the Liberal Party will likely result in the demise of a couple of bills, and most likely push back once again attempts to modernize anti-money laundering laws. The current ones, said Burns, don’t address the creation of online gambling across the country.

Burns also answered our questions about the federal/provincial dynamics around sports betting and gaming in our home and native land. The CGA head honcho also helped us tee up next week’s ICE Barcelona conference, where he will meet with association members and global industry stakeholders in the first major gambling rendezvous of the new year.

Ariane Gauthier, the new spokesperson for the Quebec Online Gaming Coalition, made her maiden GNCS appearance to shine a brighter light on the op-ed she keyboarded in Le Journal de Montreal last week to make the coalition’s case for a regulated regime in La Belle Province. We asked Gauthier about the latest efforts by the coalition to meet with officials in the Francois Legault government at a time when it's dealing with major issues at home and the threat of harmful tariffs being imposed by U.S. president-elect Donald Trump when he takes office for the second time.

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When Don Bourgeois and Harley Redlick showed up at a Canadian Gaming Association event just before Christmas in December 2023, inquiring minds among the attendees asked the pair of Osgoode Hall Law School graduates when they were bringing back a gambling law certification program launched in 2017 only to be placed on hiatus during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Well, Bourgeois and Redlick listened and the result is the return of the five-module program, which will begin April 3 and run through early May.

The two gambling industry veterans were Steve McAllister’s guest on a new episode of the Gaming News Canada Show presented by GBG Plc. Bourgeois, who has more than 25 years of experience in the gaming sector and Redlick of Sharp Edge Picks fame, summarized the curriculum for the 2025 program – which reflects the evolving legal gambling industry in Ontario and the rest of Canada. They also told our humble host the potential beneficiaries of participating in the program.

The pair also weighed in on the evolution – and the wins and losses - of Ontario’s regulated marketplace since launching in April 2022, and provided some thoughts on the launch of an expanded legal sector in Alberta.

And, oh yes, we asked Redlick for his thoughts on Super Bowl LIX; the Philadelphia Eagles’ surprising dismantling of the Kansas City Chiefs delivered a banner evening to sportsbooks (as reported yesterday by Patrick Everson for Fox Sports).

To register for the Osgoode Certificate in Gambling Law and for more information, please visit osgoodepd.ca.

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