Retail sports betting sites launched last week in Ontario, Canada coinciding with the end of the “transition period” for operators that lacked the proper provincial approvals.
Online sportsbooks based outside of the Ontario province have been accepting wagers from Canadians for years. It is estimated they were taking in $700 million annually. The gray market, as it is called, had always been able to operate, as the government didn’t enforce the laws prohibiting them.
That was until legal sports gambling came to the region on April 4. The Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO) started demanding any sportsbook operating in the province have the necessary provincial licenses. They announced in October that those businesses must cease operations by October 31.
“As with any instance of non-compliance, the AGCO will take appropriate regulatory action against any registrant that does not meet this Standard,” the agency said in an email to Covers.com. “For those registered operators that have yet to transition from the unregulated market to the regulated market once the Standard comes into force, the registrant will be required to end its unregulated operations within Ontario pending the registrant’s entry into the regulated market.”
That resolve has only intensified now with more retail sportsbooks opening up. They will join the more than 30 companies that are legally offering mobile sports betting.
Great Canadian Entertainment was the most recent entrant into the retail sportsbook market, recently opening at 10 locations. Last week, the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation (OLG) said it had plans to open retail sportsbooks at several casinos.
“We are proud to have worked closely with the gaming industry and our partners in the Ontario government on this next phase of growth in Ontario’s gaming market,” Duncan Hannay, president and CEO of OLG, said in a statement. “Sportsbooks in casinos will offer a diverse and integrated entertainment experience for players, give our service providers a stake in the sports gaming market, and bring more jobs and economic benefits to host communities.”
While more and more operators join either the retail or online market in Ontario, regulators are hopeful it will curb the activities of the gray market operators.
They are already starting to see results. Several former gray market sportsbooks, including Pinnacle and Bet99, have launched in Ontario’s regulated iGaming market.
Still there is no outline of how AGCO will enforce those that do not have provisional licenses and continue to operate in Ontario.
