Ontario bettors’ options broaden as more sportsbooks & suppliers receive AGCO registration

By Tom Nightingale Mar 4, 2022

Updated March 9

Ontario’s regulated online gaming and sports betting market continues to take shape ahead of opening up to authorized private operators on April 4, as several more sportsbooks and suppliers have been approved for licensing.

After a first wave of announcements from online sportsbooks PointsBet, theScore Bet, and Rivalry Corp. were issued in February, three more operators received registrations at the start of March.

888 confirmed on March 3 that it had received its Ontario registration and plans to offer its casino, sports, and poker products to players in the province, all powered by its proprietary technology. CEO Itai Pazner said that Ontario “represents an attractive long-term growth opportunity” for the company and is “an extremely strategically important milestone”.

NSUS Ltd., the parent company of GGPoker, has also received an online gaming license and the domain it has registered for operating under license is WSOP.ca, reports Poker Fuse, indicating that the company will go all-in with its partnership with the Caesars Entertainment-owned World Series of Poker in the province.

In addition, Covers reports that UK lottery betting provider Annexio Ltd. has been granted license to operate in Ontario.

Suppliers are receiving registration, too.

By March 8, Toronto-based Bragg Gaming Group had announced that it has also been granted a license by the AGCO to supply local iGaming and sports betting operators with its player account management (PAM) platform, iGaming content, and managed services when the market opens on April 4.

“Receiving our supplier licence in Ontario will allow us to make consistent progress as we prepare to launch in this exciting marketplace, where we are seeing strong interest from a deep mix of local, and U.S. and international-based operators with both land-based and online backgrounds,” said Chris Looney, Chief Commercial Officer at Bragg.

So, too, had Vancouver-headquartered FansUnite. CEO Scott Burton noted that “as we scale our operations, we are focused on both the domestic and international markets. The gaming-related supplier license will enable us to gain an early-mover advantage within the Canadian online gambling industry as a betting solutions provider for new sportsbooks and online casinos looking to enter the market.”

Others, such as UK-based mobile-focused company Gaming Realms, have also received their supplier license through its subsidiary Alchemybet. The iGaming Supplier license will mark Gaming Realms’ first entry into Canada, and will see the company focus on providing its Slingo Originals game content to Ontario’s licensed online casino operators.

All registrations issued by the AGCO thus far are effective April 4.

The waves are likely to keep coming in the weeks leading up to Ontario’s launch. The AGCO had previously told Covers that around 30 operators had applied for registration.

Registered companies must also execute an operating agreement with AGCO subsidiary iGaming Ontario before they can begin taking bets.

For now, the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp.’s PROLINE remains the only legal Ontario-based source of sports betting.

The major goals of opening up a widely competitive regulated iGaming and sports betting market are to provide Canadian bettors with an array of high-quality options and to regain the millions of dollars in lost revenues that result from gamblers playing with grey-market operators.