Bally’s Corporation CEO Robeson Reeves said at the company’s Q2 2024 earnings call on Wednesday that he expects Bally Bet sportsbook to go live in Ontario in the near future.

“We’ve got a few other sports launches coming through the course of the year,” Reeves told analysts in a Q&A. “… I’ll call that the simpler ones, which are Illinois and Tennessee… In both Ontario and New Jersey, we’ll introduce OSB, which will help us from an acquisition perspective to help gain extra revenue.”

Bally Bet operates its sportsbook in numerous U.S. states but is not a major player, holding approximately 1% of the U.S. sports betting market.

The company has offered its online casino in Ontario’s regulated commercial iGaming market since launching in July 2022, three months after Ontario opened its doors to operators. Ontario was its second online gaming jurisdiction after New Jersey. It didn’t launch sports betting at that time and a spokesperson said in summer 2022 that while the sportsbook arm of the site is currently in development, “there is no scheduled launch for the Bally Bet sportsbook currently.”

Two years later, it still has not stepped into that market. It sounds like that’s about to change, although Reeves didn’t give a firm timeline. 

All in all, Reeves said Bally’s expects to launch sports betting in an additional four states in the second half of the year, “and continue to plant the seeds for expanded iGaming across our geographies.”

Powerhouse iGaming states fuel North America surge

Reeves was speaking after Bally’s Interactive posted Q2 North America revenue of $49.2 million for April to June 2024, nearly double (+94%) its Q2 2023 mark of $25.3 million.

Noting that the company outperformed expectations, Reeves put that surge down to Bally’s Interactive’s strong performance in the major iGaming markets of New Jersey and Pennsylvania, as well as in its monopoly state of Rhode Island. There was no mention of how the online casino brand was performing in Ontario.

“We continue to generate excellent results in our New Jersey and Pennsylvania iGaming markets as well as from our Bally Bet OSB operations, driven in part by the ongoing integration of the Kambi and White Hat technology platforms which have garnered positive player feedback and enhanced our ability to deliver a leading product offering,” Reeves said.

He added that the technology stacks transition process is still ongoing, so Bally’s Interactive is currently running on both the proprietary Bally’s PAM and White Hat’s PAM in North America.

“During Q4, that will be replaced across Ontario, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey,” he noted. That should pave the way for Bally Bet to launch online sports betting in the province.

Reeves was speaking on the same day that the Bally Bet sportsbook launched in Maryland, its ninth state of operation after it went live in Massachusetts four weeks ago.

Bally Bet sportsbook is available in Arizona, Colorado, Indiana, New York, Iowa, Ohio and Virginia.