AGCO provides (more) guidance on new ad standards

While we were wrapping up Thursday afternoon our latest Gaming News Canada rendezvous on the LinkedIn Audio, an email landed in the inboxes of representatives of Ontario’s legal sports betting and igaming operators from the province’s alcohol and gaming commission.

The email, sent by AGCO COO David Phillips, chief legal beagle Brent McCurdy and interim chief strategy guy Ben Valido, informed operators “final?guidance?to support the implementation of amendments to the Registrar’s Standards for Internet Gaming related to restricting the use of athletes and other individuals with likely appeal to minors in igaming advertising and marketing” is now available for their perusal. In case you’ve been on an around-the-world-in-365-days dinghy journey, the AGCO announced in April 2023 planned changes to advertising and marketing standards to restrict the use of athletes, celebrities and influencers. Those changes remain on track to take effect at the end of the month.

From the latest commission correspondence (with the latest guidance underlined):

2.03 – Advertising, marketing materials and communications shall not target high-risk, underage or self-excluded persons to participate in lottery schemes, shall not include underage individuals, and shall not knowingly be communicated or sent to high-risk players. (Also applicable to Gaming-Related Suppliers)?

Requirements – At a minimum, materials and communications shall?not:?

1. Be based on themes, or use language, intended to appeal primarily to?minors.??
2. Appear on billboards or other outdoor displays that are directly adjacent to schools or other primarily youth-oriented?locations.???
3. Use or contain cartoon figures, symbols, role models, social media influencers, celebrities, or entertainers who would likely be expected to appeal to minors. [This requirement has been changed]?
4. Use active or retired athletes, who have an agreement or arrangement made directly or indirectly between an athlete and an operator or gaming-related supplier, in advertising and marketing except for the exclusive purpose of advocating for responsible gambling practices.?[This requirement is new]?
5. Use individuals who are, or appear to be, minors to promote?gaming.??
6. Appear in media and venues, including on websites, and in digital or online media, directed primarily to minors, or where most of the audience is reasonably expected to be?minors.??
7. Exploit the susceptibilities, aspirations, credulity, inexperience or lack of knowledge of all potentially high-risk persons, or otherwise extoll the virtues of?gaming.??
8. Entice or attract potentially high-risk players. Instead, measures shall be in place to limit marketing communications to all known high-risk players.?[This requirement has been changed]?

The email also mentions the commission “remains committed to continued dialogue leading up to and beyond the February 28 implementation date”.

With the football season officially over with the Chiefs’ OT victory Sunday evening, it’s expected there will be a continued decline in the amount of ad time spent by Ontario-licensed operators.

A summary of Super Bowl LVIII, sports betting style

For your reading and viewing pleasure, Gaming News Canada presents an aggregation of highlights from the Chiefs’ win over the Niners with a focus on how the sports betting industry was impacted by the Beeg Game:

• Those dang gambling commercials, they weren’t easy to find on Sunday evening’s broadcasts by the Bell Media TV trio of CTV, TSN and RDS, reported Dave Briggs of Play Canada.

• Speaking of Bell, a whole lot of Canadians had their eyes glued to the game.
• At around the same time Taylor and Travis were embracing on the field at Allegiant Stadium, GeoComply announced an increase in the Vancouver company’s geolocation checks in the U.S. of A. over the 2023 Super Bowl.

A few items of note involving ProLine+ players, courtesy of OLG communications chief Tony Bitonti:

- Among the PL players putting money on an overtime result was one customer who turned a $200 wager into a $3,200 payout.

- 90 per cent of customers got it right with Usher performing more than 8.5 tunes during the halftime show.

- 60 per cent correctly placed a bet on the Chiefs to win, and 67 per cent hit on the over (46.5 total points).

• Eilers & Krejick Gaming reported U.S. operators which go heavy on same game parlays helped offset another SB win by KC. Also, there was stiffer competition among online sportsbooks for this year’s game.

• Kambi was also on the SGP Express yesterday.
• FanDuel’s U.S. business let it be known that Super Bowl LVIII proved to be a record setting day with more than 14 million Super Bowl bets placed and $307 million in handle on the game.??
• Patrick Everson of Vegas Insider on the bettors beating the books on this given Sunday.
• An unprecedented $185.6 million (Amarican dollars) were wagered on the game in Nevada.
• Stan was The Man in correctly predicting the final score on a TV newscast in Lubbock, Tex.‘
• A rare OT Super Bowl outing proved to be good news for bettors, reported ESPN gambling scribe David Purdum.
• The NFL’s limit on the number of gambling ads during game broadcasts didn’t prevent the proprietors of sports betting and gaming businesses from spending on air time before the game, and on social media.
• Drake cashed a Super Bowl bet to the relief of Chiefs fans.?
• A touch of class by FanDuel paying tribute to the late Carl Weathers in its post-Kick of Destiny commercial.
• From Regulus Partners’ Winning Post dispatch before Sunday’s game:?

American Football is already a hyper-mature engagement product in a hyper-mature sports market in the US and Canada, in which it is largely stuck as an engagement proposition. The very high level of betting engagement already established in the US demonstrates that this segment is now hyper-mature too, albeit California and Texas can still move the dial for legal sportsbooks. The only way apex US sports events can move the dial from a sports betting perspective is if mass market US sports fans are given sufficient content to engage with: local horseracing, global soccer, global tennis, and global basketball delivers this – but US sports fans are stubbornly showing very little interest in any of these. Despite the hype, Super Bowl simply demonstrates just how shallow the foundations of US sports are for sustainable betting growth.

• Finally, once again Gronk couldn’t hit a bear in the derriere with a banjo when it comes to kicking field goals (or otherwise known as the Kick of Disgrace, Part Deux):

CGA boss Burns weighs in on Nally’s visit to London

Paul Burns, the president/CEO of the Canadian Gaming Association, dialed in from London and the final day of ICE 2024 to summarize the really beeg gambling biz conference and to provide a few thoughts on a Canadian roundtable that included Dale Nally, the Minister of Service Alberta and Red Tape Reduction. ICYMI, Nally’s the minister responsible for examining the feasibility of bringing regulated online sports betting and gaming to Alberta, and he gave the clearest indication yet last week that the province is on that road to regulation.

Alannah Della Vedova, the woman in charge of content and brand at FanDuel, returned to the Gaming News Canada Show and prepped the audience on FD’s collaboration with Bell Media (CTV, TSN and RDS) for Super Bowl LVIII. Regular guests Phill Gray, also joining us from London, and Kris Abbott provided a few words about wagering on the NFL championship tilt.

As always, there’s an open invitation to join us Thursday afternoon on LinkedIn Audio. The first cliche falls sometime after 1 ET.

Happy No. 3 to GNC

Three years ago today, what is known today as Gaming News Canada was then launched as The Parleh (although the first REAL edition of the newsletter came out on February 18 with the news that Bill C-218 had passed second reading in the House of Commons). Since that first dispatch, we’ve rebranded, expanded and taken the audio show from Clubhouse to Twitter Spaces, and our current home on LinkedIn Audio, along with a weekly podcast.

The partners of Parleh Media Group and your resident editor-in-chief are grateful to our subscribers and past sponsors for their support of our work to become a destination for news, analysis and opinion on the gambling industry here in Canada, and beyond. We’re extremely proud that GNC is consumed across Canada, in 40 U.S. states and 74 countries around the globe.?

We also want to thank the people across every sector of the industry who allow us to pick their brains and never say no when we ask them to do so, and to the communications people who respond to our emails, texts and phone calls in our effort to fairly report on what’s happening.?

The Company Line

On Valentine’s Day Eve, we give some TCL TLC to Swedish company BetChill.

Birthdate: 2015

Home Base: Stockholm?

Founders: Etibar Namazov

Raison d'être: BetChill is a B2B business that develops live sports betting games.?

If you’d like to be featured in The Company Line, please drop us a note ([email protected]).

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