Weekly Roundup 3/18/22

Chris Altman Sports Betting Expert

4 minute read

Ontario Maintains Prohibition of Sports Betting Advertising

April 4th, 2022 continues to be the projected start date for Ontario’s commercial sports betting licenses to go live. However, unlike their counterparts in the US, Canadian sports books will be barred from certain kinds of promotional advertising. 

Similarly to Europe, Canadian sportsbooks and iGaming sites will be extremely limited in how they can promote their sportsbooks with special offers (including welcome offers). Some of the caveats include:

• Sportsbooks/iGaming sites and apps may not publicize offers on other channels.
• Sportsbooks/iGaming sites and apps can deliver offers to users that have opted in to marketing, such as by signing up for an email newsletter.
• Users can be served ads for promotional deals on the operator’s website.
• When an offer is displayed, full terms and conditions must also be displayed. 
• “Free means free”: advertising of so-called “risk-free” bets will be prohibited, as a user’s initial deposit does technically qualify as a “risk”. If free bets are offered, they must be without a deposit or bet requirement. 

There are quite a few more rules for advertising and promotional offers in Ontario, but these are some of the most important points. Operators will certainly have to work around these limitations in order to continue to pull in new users. However, the upside to these restrictions is that Ontarians will have a wide variety of choices in the new commercial market.

Though these are some pretty stringent advertising rules, the commercial landscape in Ontario is going to be a vast one: pretty much any interested party, even if they had formerly operated an “offshore” iGaming site in the province, will be eligible for a legitimate online wagering license. 

Arizona Hits Record Handle; Betfred Goes Live in the Grand Canyon State

Arizona went live with online sports betting last year, and since then has been pulling in solid numbers in terms of overall “handle”: the total amount bet by users.

In December, that handle reached record heights in the state, just narrowly missing the $500 million mark. In terms of overall adjusted revenue for Arizona’s coffers, $17.3 million dollars was captured from legal sports bets. Most of that betting is done online: up to 99% of online sports betting in Arizona is done on mobile apps and sportsbook websites. 

Lawmakers and gaming officials are confident that March Madness will bring in some solid revenue figures for the state as well. Tallies are still coming in for February’s bet totals, but it’s likely that these figures will rival the handle and revenue numbers for December 2021.

Three Additional Sportsbooks Get Approval for Tennessee Launch

Betly, Bally Bet, and SuperBook have all received approval from the Tennessee Education Lottery to go live. However, some of these books (namely Bally Bet) are not quite ready for prime time.

CEO of Bally’s, Lee Fenton, has been quoted as saying that Bally’s does not want to rush an “inferior product”; therefore, Bally Bet 2.0 is still in production. Included in this rollout with be an expanded technology package in partnership with Gamesys, whom will handle the player account management side of the website and app.

It’s looking like the first of the new crowd will be SuperBook, set to go live in Tennessee sometime in April 2022. 

BetRivers Cleared for Ontario Launch; NHL and PROLINE+ Enter Partnership in Canada

Ontario is the province to watch when it comes to sports betting industry news. On April 4th, 2022, the commercial licenses awarded by the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO) are slated to go live.

What does this mean for bettors in the province? Well, first off, PROLINE+ will not be the only provider of single event wagers in town. The OLG-sponsored betting app recently announced that it would enter a betting partnership with the NHL, in large part to bring responsible betting to the forefront of the league and bolster OLG’s position as a trusted provider of legal bets. 

Another provider that will go live with an expanded sports betting offering is BetRivers, the Rush Street Interactive brand that’s made its mark in the US. Numerous operators are leaping at the chance to offer legal betting in the new Ontarian market, and BetRivers has secured AGCO approval. 
Stick with VegasInsider when Ontario does go live with its commercial betting program in April 2022: we’ll have the latest information about legal sportsbooks, how to bet, and whether or not promotional deals might be available.

Written by Chris Altman, our US Sports Betting Industry Expert.

The featured image for this post was sourced on Unsplash.

Chris Altman

Chris Altman is a sports betting writer and content expert with almost a decade of experience. He's covered everything, but his current focus is on reviewing sportsbooks and online casinos and keeping tabs on sports betting legislation. Chris has been with VegasInsider since 2019 and has freelanced in the sports betting content industry for years. More from Chris Altman