MLSE Partners With PointsBet in Canada

Dave Schwab Sports Betting Expert

3 minute read

Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment (MLSE) has chosen PointsBet as an official sports betting partner in Canada. MLSE is the ownership group behind several Toronto-based professional sports teams.

At the top of that list is the NBA’s Toronto Raptors and the NHL’s Toronto Maple Leafs. Also included in the new partnership with PointsBet are Major League Soccer’s Toronto FC and the Canadian Football League’s Toronto Argonauts. Rounding out the group of pro teams is the American Hockey League’s Toronto Marlies.

This partnership is quite the coup for PointsBet as an Australian-based sportsbook operator. The company recently entered the newly launched commercial sports betting and iGaming market in Ontario.

Canada’s most populated province decided to expand its government-owned gaming options by creating a commercial sector for sports betting and casino games. PointsBet went live in Ontario on April 4.

Partnering with MLSE was a natural extension of PointsBet’s strong commitment to the Canadian sports betting market. The NHL already has a broad partnership in place with PointsBet that includes an equity stake in the company.

In the legal US sports betting market, PointsBet has already partnered with the NFL, WNBA and the University of Colorado in an official sports betting capacity.

Adding MLSE to the list gives PointsBet a major leg up on the competition in Ontario. As Senior Vice President, Global Partnerships with MLSE, Jordan Vader commented:

“We happily welcome PointsBet as a partner of the Maple Leafs, Raptors, TFC and Argos as they enter the Ontario market with a well-stablished reputation in the sports betting industry.”

He went on to add:

“We look forward to utilizing our partnership to provide 19+ fans of our teams with new and different ways of interacting and engaging with the sports they love with a trusted operator in PointsBet that prioritizes responsible gaming.”

MLSE is the largest sports brand in Canada with far-reaching scope and range. The Maple Leafs offer broad appeal with a huge fan base that covers every province. The Raptors have a high level of exclusivity in the country as Canada’s only NBA franchise.

PointsBet puts its sports betting brand in excellent position to capitalize on its association with MLSE. Ontario is the only Canadian province to expand into regulated commercial operators. However, this market could provide the blueprint for further expansion efforts.

Scott Vanderwel is the CEO of PointsBet Canada. He summed up his company’s view of this vital partnership as follows:

“You rarely get the opportunity to partner with an organization that spans across all four professional leagues through the Toronto Maple Leafs and Toronto Raptors, Toronto FC and the Toronto Argonauts and offers year-round entertainment within the sports market in Canada.”

Industry analysts have been quick to identify this new agreement as the “gold standard” for online sports betting partnerships in Canada. This deal has also been described as the “biggest promotional partnership in the Canada sports betting landscape.”

Written by Dave Schwab, our US sports betting industry expert.

The featured image for this post was sourced on Getty Images.

Dave Schwab

Dave Schwab has been covering the sports betting industry for the past 12 years as the main focus of his specialty marketing company for online content. This endeavor followed a previous career in the field of sales and marketing in the wholesaling sector.Most of his weekly pieces focus on the rapidly expanding legal US sports betting industry. However, he still does extensive work covering betting angles that can provide a competitive edge to avid players. Dave believes that it is always a challenge to take past results and current form to try and correctly determine a future result. Sports brings out the unpredictability in what should be a fairly predictable outcome based on the stats, facts and recent trends in a particular matchup. More from Dave Schwab