A competitive online sports betting market in Ontario opened up early Monday, with several bookmakers announcing they have officially launched in Canada’s most populous province.
Last Updated: April 4, 2022 12:55 AM ET
Reading time: 3 minutes
Ontario’s new internet gambling market is open.
A competitive framework for online sports betting in Ontario debuted early Monday, and several bookmakers announced they have officially gone live in Canada’s most populous province.
Coolbet, FanDuel, PointsBet and theScore Bet all tweeted about their launches in the early hours of April 4th.
Ontario’s new iGaming market allows private sector online sports betting and casino operators to legally accept bets within the province rather than just from the state-owned Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp.
The regulatory framework is the first of its kind in Canada and is likely to be closely watched by other provincial and territorial governments.
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Before launching in the new iGaming market, companies must obtain approval from the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO) and sign an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario (iGO), a government agency and AGCO subsidiary.
According to iGaming Ontario’s website, as of early Monday morning, 13 different operators were registered with AGCO and have entered into an operating agreement with iGO.
This means that barring any other conditions they need to meet or business preparations they need to make, these operators are about to break into the iGaming market. The 13 new operators that are already legally accepting bets in Ontario or may soon be (all have online sportsbook) are:
More operators are expected to enter the market in the coming days, weeks and months. At least 30 have applied for their iGaming registration.
Regulators may remain busy for some time as the Ontario government has shaped the iGaming market as a way to push online gambling operated by provincial residents with offshore and out-of-province sites onto websites that are regulated and taxed closer to home. It is estimated that Ontario residents place hundreds of millions of dollars in bets each year using these so-called “grey” market sites.
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“One of the main goals behind Ontario’s new iGaming market is to bring sites that Ontarians already play under regulation so they can maintain high standards of responsible operations, player protection and game integrity,” an AGCO spokesman told Covers on Friday .
Not everything is sailing smoothly
Still, leading up to the launch of the iGaming market, there have been some bumps for bettors.
The Ontario plan offers gray market operators the opportunity to participate in the regulated framework. However, these operators must first settle all bets they have accepted within Ontario before they can legally launch in the province.
While it is up to bookmakers how to handle the situation, the requirement has been unpopular with gamblers sitting on potentially valuable futures bets (and perhaps not so much with those sitting on bets that look like losers).
Another rule of the iGaming market is that all players must be in Ontario to bet. This has proven problematic for operators offering daily fantasy sports, and major DFS companies DraftKings and FanDuel have announced they will no longer be offering their competitions in the province.
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“All games with liquidity pools outside of Ontario are currently prohibited,” says iGaming Ontario.
Still, the prospect of entering a market the size of Ontario was enough to intrigue many operators.
In addition, the legalization of single-game sports betting in Canada by federal lawmakers last summer has enabled its inclusion in Ontario’s new market.
“This is a big moment for the industry and we look forward to bringing fun and responsible esports experiences to Canadians,” FanDuel Group CEO Amy Howe said in a press release on Thursday.
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