Each week, Canada Sports Betting recaps all the top sports betting and iGaming news in Canada.
CGA announces election of new board members
The Canadian Gaming Association, a trade association representing operators and suppliers in the gaming, sports betting, esports, and lottery industries in Canada, announced the appointment of four new board members this week following its general meeting on Dec. 4.
Peter Czegledy (Aird & Berlis LLP), Lindsay Slader (GeoComply), Derek Ramm (Kinectify), and Terry McInally (Gateway Casinos) have joined the fold, while Neil Erlick (Nuvei) and Chuck Keeling (Great Canadian Entertainment) were reappointed for a second three-year term.
“We are delighted to welcome Peter, Lindsay, Derek, and Terry to the Board. Their diverse expertise and insights will play a critical role in helping CGA further its mission to support a regulated and responsible industry through education, collaboration, and advocacy,” said Paul Burns, president and CEO of the CGA, in an email release. “Their perspectives and regional representation will strengthen our efforts and ensure we continue making meaningful progress.”
The full 2024/25 CGA Board of Directors is as follows:
- Bruce Caughill, Managing Director, Canada, Rush Street Interactive
- Peter Czegledy, Partner, Aird & Berlis LLP
- Neil Erlick, Chief Corporate Development Officer, Nuvei
- Charmaine Hogan, Head of Regulatory Affairs, Playtech
- Dale Hooper, General Manager Canada, FanDuel
- Chuck Keeling, EVP, SH Engagement, Community and Social Responsibility, Great Canadian Entertainment
- David Lucchese, Executive Vice President, Sales & Marketing, Everi
- Adrianne McGrath, Vice President, Business Development, Konami Gaming
- Terry McInally, Chief Compliance Officer & Chief Information Officer, Gateway Casinos
- Niaz Nejad, Managing Director, Americas – Gaming, Light & Wonder
- Bob Parente, SVP Chief Revenue Officer, Gaming, Light & Wonder
- Derek Ramm, Global Head, Advisory Services, Kinectify
- Lindsay Slader, SVP Compliance, GeoComply
- Richard Taylor, President, MGE Entertainment – Fallsview
- Scott Vanderwel, Chief Executive Officer Canada, PointsBet Canada
International liquidity hearings wrap up
Daily fantasy sports and online poker players in Ontario will now wait for the Court of Appeal of Ontario’s decision regarding the matter of permitting international play in an online provincial lottery scheme.
After three days of hearings last week, the court will now likely take a few months before revealing its decision.
GME Law’s Daniel Trujillo attended the hearings and wrote a day-by-day blog for the Toronto-based practice’s website. According to Trujillo’s notes, representation from the Province of Ontario faced heavy opposition from the provincial lottery corporations and the Mohawk Council of Kahnawá:ke. The court also heard from Flutter (FanDuel/PokerStars) as well as the Canadian Gaming Association on the matter.
Back in February of this year, the Government of Ontario posed the following question to the court to get a legal opinion on the matter of international liquidity as it pertains to online gaming and sports betting after the launch of Ontario’s regulated online gambling model essentially killed DFS and online poker:
Would legal online gaming and sports betting remain lawful under the Criminal Code if its users were permitted to participate in games and betting involving individuals outside of Canada as described in the attached Schedule? If not, to what extent?
Section 207(1)(a) of the Criminal Code of Canada puts the onus on the provincial governments to operate, license, and regulate legal forms of gambling. Potentially expanding player pools to other provinces would require legal agreements between the participating provinces, and further expansion outside of Canada would be more complicated due to the relevant jurisdiction’s existing legal and regulatory regime as it pertains to online gambling.
Trujillo notes that the upcoming verdict could be appealed to the Supreme Court of Canada, further prolonging the legal proceedings.
Loto-Québec releases Q2 report
Loto-Québec, the Crown Corporation responsible for setting up and managing lottery and gambling operations in the province, released its Q2 report on Wednesday.
The Corporation says revenues totalled $814.2 million for the quarter, running from July 1 to Sept. 30, which represents a 16% increase over the same quarter last year. Net profits rose to $421.6 million, an 18.5% increase from the same quarter last year.
Casinos and gaming halls saw revenues increase 32.2% year-over-year to $333.9 million, while the lottery sector recorded revenues of $255.1 million, an increase of 11.8%.
“If we’re in such a good position halfway through the fiscal year, it’s thanks to the work done across all our sectors over the last few months,” President and CEO Jean-François Bergeron said in the release. “We obtained excellent results despite the economic context, reinforcing our confidence that we’ll reach our net income annual target. Remember that 100% of our profits are reinvested in the community.”
The healthy growth is welcomed news after Loto-Québec reported lacklustre Q1 results, which revealed revenue and profits had fallen year-over-year.
Auditor General’s OLG audit follow-up
Earlier this week, the Auditor General of Ontario, Shelley Spence, released her 2024 annual report, which included a follow-up on the recommendations made to the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation back in 2022.
The report found that OLG has fully implemented, or is in the process of implementing, 70% of the 53 recommended actions by the Auditor General back in 2022, when Ontario launched its regulated online gambling marketplace.
Many of the recommendations were made with the intent to keep OLG’s products competitive as private operators flooded the Ontario marketplace. With 100% of all profits being reinvested back into Ontario programs, the government wanted to ensure OLG’s products, especially online offerings, were meeting industry standards. Prior to regulation, OLG had a monopoly on the legal gambling space in the province, but that is no longer the case with over 82 online gaming websites from 50 different operators active in the province.
OLG has been busy revamping its online sports betting product, PROLINE +, as well its online casino library, since private operators were introduced to the marketplace. The corporation says it’s still maintaining roughly a 20% market share despite the increased competition.
OLG’s latest annual report published in October revealed the corporation earned $630 million in total gross gaming revenue, up 12% from the following year.
The provincial Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Gaming now oversees OLG operations, which also include lottery sales and land-based gambling.
