Online bookmakers and casinos are still waiting for the go-ahead for single event bets

With apologies to the late and great Charles Dickens, these are the busiest moments for Paul Burns.

The President and CEO of the Canadian Gaming Association is in Malta this week for the return of the SiGMA Europe World Gaming Festival after a year-long hiatus. Last month, Burns was on the comeback from the Global Gaming Expo in Las Vegas. Last week, he was a panelist at a virtual gaming and technology conference. And in two weeks, the SBC Summit North America in New York.

Regardless of which forum or platform Burns appears on at the moment, there is one question that is a safe bet: When will Ontario be open for online sports betting operators and casinos to offer legal single event sports betting?

“I don’t have a real timetable for when (first quarter 2022) will be,” Burns said Wednesday via Zoom Call after a day of wall-to-wall meetings at the festival in Malta, a global sports betting mecca. and games. hub thanks to rigorous government efforts to license the industry and attract companies to put down roots in a country with just over 500,000 residents.

“Everyone is doing everything possible to achieve it. Everyone is motivated at (Internet Gaming Ontario and the Ontario Gaming and Alcohol Commission, the two regulators for sports betting and gaming) to do so as soon as possible. “

Single event sports betting is now open throughout Canada through provincial lottery corporations, including ProLine +, operated by Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation. Heavyweights like betMGM, Penn National, PointsBet Canada, FanDuel, and DraftKings are among the long list of bookmakers wanting to trade in what is expected to be the most open market in North America.

Ontario casinos hope to bring retail gambling houses to their places. However, they are awaiting instructions from OLG, which runs the ground games in the province.

Spokesman Tony Bitonti said OLG continues to work on creating a strategy for casinos to host sportsbooks on the site.

“We are pleased that our casino service providers are now able to consider adding single event sports betting to enhance the customer experience at casinos,” Bitonti wrote in an email. “We are having those conversations with our valued service providers, while also working with (AGCO) on the regulatory requirements necessary to integrate sportsbooks into terrestrial environments.”

Burns said the casinos, which completely reopened last month after being closed for most of the past 18 months due to the pandemic, are frustrated with the delay.

“I am extremely disappointed that we do not have retail casinos open yet,” Burns said. “The casinos want to move.”

For very good reasons.

Industry insiders are pointing to February with the Super Bowl (the 2021 game saw nearly $ 500 million (US) wagered in 16 US states with legal stakes) and the Beijing Winter Olympics as an attractive launching pad.

“There will be challenges in getting ready for the Super Bowl,” Burns warned. “Operators will have to change some things. For example, all futures bets must be moved to a supported platform.

“Everybody wants to get it right instead of meeting an arbitrary deadline. Operators do not want to create a customer experience that is not the best. “

Awareness of the potential economic impact of the new sports betting and gaming business reached new heights Wednesday when sportsbooks in New Jersey reported a state record of $ 1.3 billion in control for October. Gambling commissions in Oregon and Philadelphia also announced unprecedented handling for the month.

“Sports betting has increased with the start of the NFL season,” Jane Bokunewica, director of the Lloyd Levenson Institute at the University of Stockton, told The Associated Press. “The October 2021 sports betting record check (in New Jersey) shows that September was not a flash, but the first sign of a new level of participation in sports betting, at least during the NFL season.”

In contrast, the British Columbia Lottery Corporation, which offers the province’s only single-event betting product through its PlayNow platform, received a combined $ 25 million (Cdn) for September and October. That’s why provincial governments, which for now only receive sports betting revenue from lottery corporations, will keep a close eye on Ontario when it opens.

“The other provinces are already watching and learning,” Burns said.