BCBusiness

September/October 2022 - ENTREPRENEUR OF THE YEAR

With a mission to inform, empower, celebrate and advocate for British Columbia's current and aspiring business leaders, BCBusiness go behind the headlines and bring readers face to face with the key issues and people driving business in B.C.

Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/1477631

Contents of this Issue

Navigation

Page 10 of 79

ON THE RADAR ( the informer ) W atching sports on TV used to be predictable. Breaks in the action would feature trucks, beer and, if it was an American station, perhaps a gecko. Lately that's changed. Sports betting sites, online casinos and cryptocurrency dealers have become major TV media buyers. And much of what is being pitched is not even intended for B.C. audi- ences—at least, not legally. It's not just sports broad- casts. Up and down the cable menu you'll find plugs for Jackpot City, Bet 365 and Draft Kings, as well as cryptocur- rency dealers such as Wealth- simple Crypto and Crypto.com. Why has the media advertising landscape changed so abrupt- ly? There's no one answer, but the most significant changes in- volve sports betting companies. Last August, the federal government removed restric- tions on single-game betting in Canada, allowing provinces to set their own regulations. Previously only parlay (multi- event) betting had been al- lowed. Single-event betting creates a much larger pool of gamblers. "Where there's a new multi-billion-dollar market up for grabs, the ads will follow," Wanna Bet? If you've been watching any TV lately, odds are you've seen a lot of ads about sports betting. We dig into why that is, and what it signals By Steve Burgess B E T T I NG JACKING THE POT Single-event betting became legal in Canada last August. Two months later, BCLC had seen more than $25 million in single-event bets placed. The number of NFL bets in particular jumped 97% on the platform. BCLC LOST SOME 60% IN REVENUE DURING THE 2020/21 FISCAL YEAR, MOSTLY DUE TO COVID-19 AND THE SHUTTERING OF BRICK-AND- MORTAR OPERATIONS. But the organization's online hub, PlayNow.com, actually doubled its revenue from the previous year, and that was before the single-event legislation kicked in. The platform took in more than $2 million in bets on the Super Bowl, doubling its previous record haul for the NFL championship. In June of this year, BCLC partnered with the Saskatchewan Indian Gaming Authority and SaskGaming to bring PlayNow.com to Saskatchewan. It also started piloting sports-betting concepts at B.C. bars and pubs this year, with the goal of promoting online betting in real time. TOP: BCLC; RIGHT: ISTOCK SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2022 BCBUSINESS 11 ROLL THE DICE Provinces can now set their own rules (without restric- tions) when it comes to single- game betting says Doug Jasinski of marketing firm Skunkworks Creative. Then, on April 4, Ontario be- came the first province to host a competitive sports betting market. That allowed outside companies like Bet MGM and Bet 99 to legally compete with Ontario's provincial lottery. Just as national hockey broadcasts last spring featured political ads for the Ontario provincial election, sports betting sites are paying for national ads just to reach the Ontario market. "Gambling websites that are now licensed in Ontario appear to have purchased significant advertising packages with national broadcasters," says Dan Beebe, interim COO of the BC Lottery Corporation, "and those packages have no bound- aries between provinces." According to Ron Segev of Vancouver's Segev LLP, a legal firm specializing in digital technology and online enter- tainment, sports betting ads ostensibly aimed at Ontario

Articles in this issue

Links on this page

Archives of this issue

view archives of BCBusiness - September/October 2022 - ENTREPRENEUR OF THE YEAR