It seems like a long time ago already, but Monday, April 4 was a special day for the industry.

Ontario’s regulated and open online gaming and betting market finally officially launched at 12:01 a.m. on that day, and by the end of the day, 13 private online gaming and betting sites were fully licensed and operational in the province. More will undoubtedly follow.

The day began with a gathering at the Toronto Stock Exchange which saw the Canadian Gaming Association, Covers, theScore, and numerous more organizations come together to celebrate the official moment of launch.

Other events and receptions were held across the city throughout the day, and in the evening, the Canadian Gaming Association, Canadian Gaming Business, and SBC were proud to host an industry reception attended by people from all corners of the gaming industry.

We’d like to take this time to thank the dozens and dozens of attendees, who spanned everything from sportsbook operators to payments providers, responsible gambling personnel to technology suppliers, media companies to regulators, land-based gaming stakeholders to legal firms.

We’d also like to thank our two premier sponsors, props.cash and Relax Gaming, as well as recognize our supporting sponsors, who included Aird Berlis, Bragg Gaming Group, Delta Bingo & Gaming, McCarthy Tétrault, Nuvei, Paysafe, Rubicon Strategy, and Worldplay.

It was fantastic to be reunited with the industry again after so long spent apart by necessity, particularly to celebrate such a watershed moment for our great industry.

Finally, another shout-out here to everyone in the industry who has been a vocal advocate for a revamped online betting and gaming market in Canada, particularly to our longstanding partners at the Canadian Gaming Association, and its President & CEO Paul Burns, whose work has been tireless and often thankless.

We finally made it, and we can’t wait to see what comes next. We’ll see you all at the 25th Canadian Gaming Summit in Toronto in June.