Each week, Canada Sports Betting recaps all the top sports betting and iGaming news in Canada.
NBA cracks down on specific player prop bets
The NBA has asked some prominent sportsbooks to stop offering prop odds on players who are on two-way or 10-day contracts, according to ESPN’s David Purdum.
FanDuel, DraftKings, BetMGM, ESPN BET, and Caesars all confirmed to ESPN that their respective sportsbooks will adhere to the request in the wake of the Jontay Porter prop betting scandal from last season. If you can recall, Porter was banned from the league for his participation in a gambling scheme that required him to purposely botch his personal statistics in multiple games in order for bets to cash. The former Toronto Raptor pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud on July 10 and is scheduled to be sentenced on Dec. 18 in New York.
FanDuel and DraftKings combine to make up roughly 67% of the regulated sports betting market share in the United States. That number rises to 78% if you include BetMGM in the trio of popular U.S. sportsbooks.
Unfortunately, this request from the NBA does nothing to stop unregulated sportsbooks from still offering props on these types of players. Bettors that wager with offshore sportsbooks can still potentially have access to these betting markets, and potential corruption is still a major issue.
The fact that Porter was caught by sportsbook integrity monitors suggests that the regulated marketplace is working as it should be.
BetVictor partners with McGrady
Former Toronto Raptor Tracy McGrady is the newest sports betting brand ambassador for BetVictor.
The operator made the announcement on Wednesday, just prior to Toronto’s season opener against the Cleveland Cavaliers.
McGrady will specifically serve as a Safer Gambling Ambassador in Canada, as new rules set out by the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario outline celebrities, athletes, and ex-athletes that could appeal to minors can only appear in ads aired within provincial borders if they’re delivering responsible gambling messaging. Outside of Ontario, McGrady could potentially be used in a traditional ad manner.
“We are thrilled to have signed Tracy McGrady to BetVictor to promote Safer Gambling. Tracy is a perfect role model, with an amazing career across 16 seasons in the NBA. Aligning with him is a perfect fit for the BetVictor brand,” said Brent Almeida, CCO of BVGroup.
McGrady is the cousin and former teammate of Vince Carter, who will have his number retired by the Raptors later this season. T-Mac played three seasons for the Raptors between 1997-2000 and retired as a seven-time NBA All-Star.
IBIA integrity report
The International Betting Integrity Association released its 2024 Q3 report on Wednesday.
The leading global voice on integrity for the licensed betting industry reported 42 suspicious betting alerts across five sports, spanning 18 countries and five continents to the appropriate authorities for the quarter. Those figures represent a 16% decrease from the same quarter last year.
Soccer and tennis had the most alerts in Q3, with 14 each, totalling 67% of all alerts. Only three alerts were issued for sporting events in North America, two of which came from the United States and one from Mexico for suspicious betting activity related to tennis matches.
“The third quarter saw football and tennis register the highest number of alerts, albeit those numbers are in line with those seen in recent years and, in the case of tennis, represent a significant decrease compared to its peak,” said IBIA CEO Khalid Ali. “It should also be noted that esports alerts fell back to more normal levels in Q3, following an increase during Q1 and Q2 that was primarily the result of a linked case. We continue to work closely with the integrity authorities for those sports, and indeed all sports, where we see suspicious betting, with the aim of detecting and sanctioning corrupt activity to protect sporting events and betting markets.”
IBIA and its growing membership monitor over $300 billion (USD) per annum in sports betting turnover (handle) across more than 125 sports betting brands globally.
ALC’s annual report
The Atlantic Lottery Corporation released its 2023-24 annual report on Wednesday.
The crown corporation established by the four provincial governments — New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland and Labrador — on the East Coast of Canada reported it returned $487 million in profit back to the provinces for the fiscal year, a decrease in profit of $5.2 million compared with the prior year. ALC also reported $872.7 million in gross operating revenue.
“We are operating in an increasingly competitive environment due to the rise of gambling sites that cannot legally operate in Atlantic Canada, with nearly $200 million leaving our region each year to benefit operators outside Atlantic Canada,” said Sean O’Connor, ALC chair, board of directors, in the release. “To address this, we are always seeking new ways to educate Atlantic Canadians about the risks of these unregulated sites while continuing to grow and evolve our products to meet the expectations of our players.”
Lottery and video lottery terminal sales drove the majority of revenue in the fiscal year, while net revenue from iGames reached $126.2 million, a 26% increase over the previous year. Net revenue in the sports category (PROLINE) was $14.8 million, which represents a 13.4% decrease from the previous year. However, ALC says digital revenue, which includes the sum of online and QR code purchases, made up 77% of all sports-betting sales, a reflection of the growing preference for a digital experience across all wagering channels. Sports betting retail sales were down 3% year-over-year.
ALC is the only legal provider of iGaming and sports betting across the four Atlantic provinces, and all profits are reinvested into provincial programs.
With Ontario embracing regulation in its online gambling space and Alberta on the verge of adopting a similar model next year, you have to wonder if ALC is at least pondering following the same path, as an estimated $200 million in revenue leaving the region each year to unregulated betting sites. The performance of its sports betting products in the last year is underwhelming, to say the least. And it’s very apparent that sports bettors in the province are wagering their dollars with offshore sportsbooks rather than with PROLINE.
