Will other operators follow Fitzdares out of Ontario?
Is Fitzdares’ exit from Ontario the beginning of the much-predicted market contraction?
On Monday, Fitzdares told its customers that it is shutting down its Ontario online sportsbook and casino effective March 31, 2025 after two years in the market - and one month shy of the third anniversary of Ontario’s regulated gambling industry.
The news was reported on Monday by Geoff Zochodne in Covers and Justin Byers at Canadian Gaming Business.
Ontario is home to some 50 operators offering more than 80 separate gambling sites. That’s one tough market even with the lower margins of legal online casinos making it more possible for even smaller operators to generate revenue.
Fitzdares is at least the third operator to depart Ontario following Coolbet in 2023 and Unibet in 2024.
Could other operators follow? Likely, given how many are battling it out in Ontario. It’s simply not possible for all of them to carve out a significant enough piece.
But Fitzdares’ decision to leave is at least partly related to the resignation of its CEO William Woodhams earlier this year.
Fitzdares, which has taken bets since 1882 in the United Kingdom, also operates in Ireland. Ontario was the operator’s first overseas locale.
Clive Harris, Fitzdares’ country manager for Canada told Covers in a statement, “We have loved Ontario, and made some great friends, but the cost of doing business was becoming prohibitive. We will continue to monitor the competitive and regulatory environment closely, as we gear up for exciting times ahead."
Atlantic Lottery switched on GBG identity data verification for Casino players in Canada, their pass rate improved from 68% to 82%, which resulted in over 10,000 extra players in a year. Read the latest GBG case study to learn more.
Schneider, Smith and Kehn and Defy The Odds join the GNCS
A trio of talented women — Sue Schneider, Paris Smith and Kelly Kehn — were the featured guests on the most recent Gaming News Canada Show podcasted hosted by Steve McAllister and sponsored by GBG Plc.
The women, who co-founded Defy The Odds, have a combined 75-years plus in the gambling industry and have individually been among the leading crusaders for women in a business that has historically been heavily male skewed.
Schneider, Smith and Kehn talked about the creation of Defy The Odds at the end of 2024, and the new company’s recently announced partnerships with Thundr, QueenBHive, and Let’s Fantasy Game.
You can listen to the show via your favourite podcasting app.
Québec coalition argues Loto-Québec has shown steady revenue declines
In a Q & A with Bill Spurr in Odds Shark published last Friday, Quebec Online Gaming Coalition (QOGC) spokesperson Ariane Gauthier continued to offer criticism of Loto-Québec’s gambling monopoly in La belle province.
Gauthier spoke about her recent op-ed in Le Journal de Montreal. She told Odds Shark that her op-ed was, “quite a downer for Loto-Québec, because a few weeks before we published the op-ed they were celebrating their historic financial results, congratulating themselves for their wisdom. A few weeks later, I publish an op-ed showing that – and what we did was quite simple, we took net revenues from Loto-Québec’s annual report, and we just adjusted to remove the impact of inflation – and what we saw was a decline over 20 years of Loto-Québec revenues. So, there is nothing to celebrate there. The reaction was to stop completely this congratulations, and I hope the minister of finance will ask serious questions of Loto-Québec, especially because he’s asking all crown corporations in Québec to generate one billion dollars more in savings, or additional revenues for the government, because we are running a large deficit here in Québec. I think the op-ed will help in the discussions between Loto Quebec and the minister of finance.”
The QOGC lobbies for an open, regulated gambling sector in Québec on behalf of Betway, bet99, DraftKings, Entain, Flutter, Games Global, Rush Street Interactive and Apricot Investments.
BetMGM begins Problem Gambling Awareness Month by increasing efforts
March is Problem Gambling Awareness Month and BetMGM and MGM Resorts are kicking it off by announcing it has expanded its Kindbridge Behavioral Health referral program nationwide in the U.S.
A press release says, “This initiative ensures that players in all jurisdictions where BetMGM operates online have direct access to Kindbridge’s specialized mental health services, providing critical support for those experiencing gambling-related challenges.”
Here’s hoping it’s just the beginning of a month of announcements about improvements in the responsible gambling branch of the sector.
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