A side-effect of the spread of legal sports betting in the United States has been an advertising explosion.
Sportsbook operators aiming to attract customers have flooded airwaves and social media channels with their TV spots and sign-up offers. The downpour during football season even had regulators already envisioning a day they’d have to read the riot act to companies.
“If the industry does not control itself, the government will step in, and certainly create standards that they may not want,” warned David Rebuck, director of New Jersey’s Division of Gaming Enforcement, during a webinar in September.
Canada isn’t having the same issue — or at least not yet.
Granted, there is advertising by online gambling companies. For example, watch a CFL game and you’ll likely see an ad for free-to-play websites of sportsbook operators, such as BetRegal, the “Official Sport Gaming Partner” of the league. In Toronto, residents have even been treated to some billboard advertising.
But having legalized single-game sports betting just this past summer, Canada’s sports betting industry is growing slowly. Right now, the only sportsbooks that are authorized by Canadian regulators are those of provincial lottery and gaming corporations, which have taken a lower-key approach than the one operators have chosen in the U.S.
???? Over/Under????: Is @WillStanback28 running wild in the Eastern Semi-Final?@betregal | https://t.co/n1IbRZC8aR pic.twitter.com/aF09n53gp5
— CFL (@CFL) November 25, 2021
Moreover, only one province in Canada is publicly contemplating the kind of system that could allow for something similar to the U.S. ad boom: Ontario.
In Ontario, regulators have been working for months on a new internet gambling market, which would allow private-sector operators of online sportsbooks and casinos to take wagers from consumers in return for paying the province a cut of the revenue. While the market’s launch had been targeted for December, operators now see a start date of somewhere in the first quarter of 2022 as more likely.
With their work ongoing, the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario released an “Internet Gaming Go-Live Compliance Guide” earlier this month.
The guide outlines the AGCO’s compliance approach and details how operators can satisfy the regulator’s technological and risk-management criteria so they can participate in the future iGaming market.
But the document contains a few other notes, including that the AGCO will be closely watching to ensure participants aren’t conducting “unregulated market operations” in Ontario. Another hot-button item will be advertising and market activity, and ensuring minors aren’t exposed.
There were already standards that iGaming operators were going to have to follow when it comes to marketing and advertising in Ontario, such as not targeting underage or high-risk players.
Even so, the AGCO says it has not put exact limits on how much advertising is allowed or through which channels it could appear. That leaves open the possibility Ontario residents could see a surge in gambling-related advertising in the future — although the commission could crack down if things were to get out of hand.
“The AGCO has not established specific regulatory limits or restrictions on advertising and marketing around overall volume, types of channels, or timing,” the compliance guide says. “However, based on our monitoring of industry activity in the months ahead, we will consider additional measures if warranted.”
The sportsbook ad boom
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Source: https://www.covers.com/industry/ontario-canada-online-sports-betting-advertising-2021