GeoComply and OneComply come together in a made-in-Vancouver M&A deal

Conn tells tale of Comply companies coming together, and is there a pair of Converse shoes in this matter of M&A?

Cameron Conn and Aaron Gould, it was business as usual yesterday morning when they rolled out of bed and metaphorically rolled up their sleeves.

Except, it wasn’t BAU.

The OneComply co-founders. . . er. . . find themselves as employees following the official announcement at the crack of dawn Monday that the solutions-based gaming business was the inaugural acquisition by GeoComply. OK, the employee thing may be slightly exaggerated – Conn’s title shifts from CEO to General Manager while Gould had already changed his LinkedIn profile to include his new title of Senior Director, Engineering Compliance.

“Aaron and I are just saying ‘Let’s Go’,” Conn told us Friday via ye olde Google Meet. “We joked this week that ‘we did this, congratulations, let’s go to Mallorca’. But no, we’re going to work and we’re really excited to do that and start working again on innovation.

“What’s the next great thing, and how can we leverage this fabric we’ve woven into a quilt?”

We had our own beau jest moment while talking to Conn, asking if, as when Gordie Howe received a Red Wings leather jacket when signing his first NHL contract with Detroit in 1946, did the deal come with a pair of Converse shoes and those magnificent grey shirt/jackets adorned by GC types on conference floors around the planet?

“We’re still this scrappy upstart, but this happens and you go ‘Am I going to get a pair of those Converse?’,” Conn said with a grin.

The joining together of GeoComply and OneComply, both members of Vancouver’s rather rich technology and innovation hub around the world of gaming - appeared to be destined to happen. GeoComply co-founders – and wife and husband team – Anna Sainsbury and David Briggs have known Gould for a while, according to Conn, and their families have spent time together.

“From our first interactions with OneComply, we have been excited about the opportunity to welcome them into the GeoComply family, and it gives me great pleasure to have completed that process,” said Sainsbury in the news release.

The acquisition of OneComply and its centralized licensing solution complements GeoComply’s fraud prevention and cybersecurity solutions.

“The data is the start of your journey in gaming. We centralize more than 200,000 data points and allow them to instantly complete the application for submission to gaming regulators,” said Conn, a third-generation Las Vegas gaming operator whose wild ride through tine industry includes overseeing the construction and opening of the River Cree Resort and Casino near Edmonton in 2006, and then spending his 30th birthday as a rookie blackjack dealer at the Edgewater Casino in Vancouver.

“We have skill sets that currently aren’t part of GeoComply. Our entire team will be working (there), and that was really important for us.”

Now about that pair of Converse. . . . .

Watch representatives from iGaming Ontario speak to Rebekah Jackson, Director of Gaming at GBG, on how Operators can onboard more players in Ontario, reduce costs and deliver FINTRAC compliance. Watch now.

SPRinG app for concern gamblers launched

A quartet of St. Michael’s researchers from Unity Health Toronto has designed a new smartphone app which provides round-the-clock support to people concerned with their gambling habits.

Unity Health announced last month the launch of the SPRinG app, described as a “low-barrier, self-management journaling and tracking tool that helps users understand their gambling patterns and urges. It’s a research tool to gain insights into this population, and explore the feasibility of addressing problem gambling with a digital solution”. Leading the creation of the app were St. Michael’s research scientist Dr. Flora Matheson and senior research associate Dr. Arthur McLuhan, research coordinator Madison Ford from the MAP Centre for Urban Health Solutions, and Dr. Alireza Sadeghian, a professor at Toronto Metropolitan University’s Department of Computer Science.

“In Ontario, there are not enough gambling support services for those who need them,” Dr. Matheson said in a Q and A on the Unity Health website. “These services are often siloed, and many have long wait lists. Our community partners wanted a tool that could bridge these services, and could be accessed outside of normal 9-5 business hours, when a gambling event is likely to occur . . . .The app is always in users’ back pockets, whenever they need it.”

Funding for the app initially came from the Ontario Ministry of Health, and since then, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research through the Collaborative Health Research Projects Initiative have also opened up their digitall wallets.

The Responsible Gambling Council has also been a supporter of the Unity Health initiative. In an email to Gaming News Canada on Friday, RGC CEO Shelley White said the council was a member of the advisory group involved in the development of the app, and also lent a hand with funding applications and marketing the app.

Gaming News Canada Show goes on the road

For the first time since we started gathering for a gab on gambling every Thursday afternoon 24 months or so ago, we’re doing the remote thing with the Gaming News Canada Show presented by Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP.

So. . . we’ll find a somewhat-quiet corner inside the Meadowlands Exposition Center on the final day of the SBC Summit North America for our weekly chit chat. PLEASE note that the LinkedIn Audio gathering will start earlier than usual with the first cliché being dropped at 1 p.m. Your humble host is participating in a 2 p.m. roundtable with gambling industry veteran legal beagle Jeff Ifrah, Jennie Hovland from the National Indian Gaming Commission, fellow journalist Patrick Everson of Vegas Insider, Sam Porter of Ice Miller LLP, NTGCR chair Jamie Hummingbird, and Cipher Sports CEO Adam Fiske.

Mark Silver and yours truly will be in pushy producer mode (albeit in a polite Canadian way, eh) to get at least a few SBC Summit attendees on board for the 45 minutes or so. Brock University sports management professor Michael Naraine is scheduled to hop on to weigh in on the AGCO’s proposed changes to online advertising standards for the industry.?And, we’re also scheduled to speak with Tallysight co-founder and CEO Matt Peterson about the company’s new partnerships with Homestand Sports and Sportradar.

Speaking of which, Canadian Gaming Association leader Paul Burns joined regular contributors Kris Abbott and Amanda Brewer on the latest podcast to discuss the AGCO’s feedback process – and the Commission’s decision to extend the deadline for submissions to next Monday (May 15).

The Company Line

This week, we put in The Company Line Spotlight the Las Vegas-based company – and Canadian Gaming Association member – Everi Holdings.

Birthdate:?1998

Home Base:?Las Vegas

Founder:?Karim Maskatiya is the company’s original founder. Randy Taylor, who joined the company in 2011, is the current President and CEO.

Raison D’Etre:?Founded as Global Cash Access, the company was rebranded to its current name in 2015. Everi provides casino games, financial technology solutions, slot machines and other products to the gaming industry.

If you’d like to have your business featured in The Company Line,?please drop us an email ([email protected]).

Gaming News Canada has advertising and sponsorship opportunities with our twice-weekly newsletters, the LinkedIn Audio events on Thursday, and the Gaming News Canada Show podcast. If you want to reach a highly engaged audience in the space, please email?[email protected]?for more information.