Rush Street, PointsBet bosses talk Ontario, Alberta

The arrival of summer’s final month coincides with a wave of earnings reports around the gambling industry. DraftKings announced higher-than-expected Q2 revenue last week and Genius Sports released some rosy results of their own yesterday. This week, we’ll get the latest financials from Entain, Flutter, Penn, Wynn, Sportradar and Everi, and others.

Last week, two chief executive officers of operators doing business in Ontario provided their thoughts on the 16-month-old regulated sports betting and igaming industry.

PointsBet mentioned “momentum” with its Canadian business for Q4 FY2023 including significant gains in net win with both its sportsbook and online casino products, and total sportsbook handle. CEO Sam Swannell also pointed to growth in its cash-active clients and a 22-per-cent drop in spending on marketing.

“We believe the early stage of the Canadian business complements our more mature Australian business, as well as providing an opportunity to leverage attractive features of our tech that aren’t available in the Australian market, such as igaming and online live betting.

“The company currently expects the positive EBITDA of the Australian trading business to significantly offset EBITDA losses of the Canadian trading business in FY24 as Canada builds scale.”

Over at Rush Street Interactive, CEO Richard Schwartz was bullish on the company’s Q2 performance in Ontario with its BetRivers brand.

“We continued to perform very well in the highly competitive Ontario market,” Schwartz said during an earnings call.

RSI’s head honcho referenced access to deeper data in iGaming Ontario’s latest performance marketing report, released last month.

“Two things jump out to us,” Schwartz added. “First, further evidence that our average retail per monthly active user (ARPMAU) is significantly higher than the market’s, coming in at well over two times that of our competitors. Secondly, this is the first time they’ve broken out the difference between casino and sports with casino making up almost three-quarters of the market.

“This trend is similar to what we’ve seen in the US markets with iCasino and should provide an outsize benefit to RSI as future iCasino markets launch.”

Both bosses also weighed in on possible expansion of regulated gambling beyond Ontario, specifically Alberta. We’ve heard from several folks, at conferences, on webinars, or over the (cell)phone, that the Danielle Smith government in the prairie province is warm to the idea of following the decision of Doug Ford’s Conservatives in Ontari-ari-ari-o to create a competitive marketplace for sports wagering and online game. Trying to mark a date on the calendar for that to actually happen, however, is a mug’s game at this juncture.

“Alberta is one that really seems to be moving fairly fast in terms of appreciating the tax benefits and consumer protections available from the regulation of Ontario,” Schwartz said. “Other jurisdictions are starting to see consumers in those jurisdictions are being marketed to by operators who aren’t paying taxes there. So they certainly would like to take that lead of Ontario and be able to generate some taxes up and up in Canada for the jurisdiction.

“Quebec and British Columbia as well are showing various signs of interest.”

From Swannell, who said PointsBet is “keeping a close” eye on what’s happening in the adopted province of Connor McDavid: “As it relates to the potential expansion of Alberta, unlike here in America, we don’t anticipate that that comes with a whole round of additional costs. When you open a new state in America, it’s its own country, basically. And so Canada will be province by province, but the expectation is that the synergy benefits are far higher. And as it relates to some of our marketing spend, performance marketing is very targeted. So you’re only targeting people in the province of Ontario at the moment.

“But as it relates to above the line, there’s certainly some spend that we’re making that floats into other jurisdictions of Canada. So, if an Alberta was to open up, you naturally get some marketing efficiencies there.”

A reminder that the provinces’ lottery and gaming corporations welcome competition with the same zeal your humble correspondent would have in consuming tainted tuna. Alberta Gaming, Lottery and Cannabis was among five LGCs which have formed a coalition, and directed its legal counsell to send a letter to some of Ontario’s regulated operators back in May. Gaming News Canada learned last month that the Saskatchewan Indian Gaming Authority has also since become a member of the Canadian Lottery Coalition.

Gouker, Schneider and Fields appear on GNCS Show podcast

Dustin Gouker is a pioneer when it comes to covering the sports betting and gaming industry, and setting a high journalistic bar in doing so going back eight years ago when he was recruited by Chris Grove to report on the business of gambling for Legal Sports Report.

So, Gouker made his overdue debut on the latest episode of the Gaming News Canada Show podcast presented by Osler, Hoskin, Harcourt LLP. The author of The Closing Line blog and Catena Media consultant discussed his move from sports journalism to the gambling biz, the latest happenings around daily fantasy sports businesses drawing the ire of state regulators in the U.S. of A., and the push for igaming across the United States.

SBC executives Sue Schneider and Nicole Fields also appeared to pull back the curtain on a recent gathering of influential women in the gaming industry in Las Vegas, the continuing push to create bigger and better opportunities, and their respective advocacy roles.

Jeffrey Haas, who has held leadership positions over the past two decades with DraftKings, PokerStars and Bwin, is scheduled to be our special guest on this week’s episode.

A message (or two) from the Canadian Gaming Association

While catching up on some reading from the long weekend yesterday morning, we gleaned a couple of nuggets from the Canadian Gaming Association’s latest correspondence to its membership.

The CGA will host a Member Town Hall on Wednesday, Sept. 13 with the time and venue (which we expect will be somewhere within the city on Lake Ontario directly south of Richmond Hill) to be announced at a later date.

Also, the association has welcomed four companies to its membership club: Bragg Gaming, GG Poker, law firm Dickinson Wright LLP and accounting firm MNP LLP.

The Company Line

We’re back with our cross-country edition of profiling the provincial lottery and gaming associations in TCL corner. This week, a snapshot of Alberta Gaming, Liquor and Cannabis.

Birthdate: AGLC was created in 1996 as the Alberta Gaming and Liquor Commission.

Founders: The provincial government, then led by Premier Ralph Klein and the Progressive Conservative party, created the agency. Kandice Machado, who joined the AGLC in 2002, is the current CEO and former Edmonton Eskimos/Elks president and CEO Len Rhodes is the agency’s chair of the board.

Raison D’Etre: The role of AGLC on the gaming side includes issuing and regulating charitable gaming, issuing licences for casinos and other gaming establishments, and also owning and maintaining all slot machines, VLTs and lottery terminals. It also oversees Play Alberta, the lone regulated online gambling site in the province.

If you’d like your business to be featured in The Company Line, please drop a note to steve@gamingnewscanada.ca.

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