FanDuel, Rivalry deliver some innovation inspiration
FanDuel, Rivalry deliver some innovation inspiration
An enhanced betting feature on TSN.ca, and the first single game parlay product in esports wagering showcase the latest bit of tech savvy in the Ontario market.
In this issue:
Strokes of innovation by FanDuel, Rivalry
Is Canada close to a match-fixing scandal?
Gambler stirs the pot, and then some
Harley Redlick joins Gaming News Canada Show podcast
FanDuel, Rivalry step up on the innovation front
Talk is cheap. The proof is in the pudding. Walking the walk. Delivering the mail.
OK, OK, enough with the cliches.
The people with any kind of skin in the game when it comes to the Canadian gambling community almost immediately bring up the skill, savvy and spirit of innovation with the technology sector here when asked to identify a strong suit of the industry (and one which is respected by industry folks across other parts of the planet). The Summer of ‘23 has shone a very bright LED light on that tech excellence, beginning with the migration of theScore’s platform onto Barstool Sports. It’s back to the drawing board for theScore’s techies with ESPN Bets thanks to the Worldwide Leader’s recent partnership with Penn, but that’s another story for another newsletter (and Betr founder Joey Levy - just named to Sports Business Journal’s New Voices Under 30 - did his own discourse into the ESPN-Penn-Barstool blockbuster in a lengthy note to his employees last week).
Then it was the engineers and other tech experts at bet365 and Woodbine Entertainment working together to allow bet365 to offer pari-mutuel racing odds in time for last Sunday’s King’s Plate.
Your humbled chronicler was trying to figure out our soaring handicap on the links early this week when we were tipped off by an addition to the exclusive relationship between FanDuel Canada and TSN which shows up on the network’s website and mobile app.
"We're very excited to unveil this enhanced betting feature with TSN,” Conor Murray, FanDuel’s marketing guru, told Gaming News Canada in a statement. “On TSN.ca, fans can now view FanDuel's latest odds and make a bet with one click.
“This feature solidifies the unique FanDuel-TSN partnership and is an innovation that we are all very proud of."
FanDuel’s Canadian business isn’t alone in finding new ways for customer acquisition. Its American colleagues let it be known Tuesday that, in a partnership with YouTube, new and existing customers will receive a $100 discount off an NFL Sunday Ticket subscription by placing a $5 bet between now and September 18th.
While we were seeking comment from both FanDuel and TSN on the new layer to their partnership (we’re working to have Murray and someone from TSN join us on the podcast over the next 2-3 weeks), another tip landed in our inbox that Rivalry had its own bit of innovation coming down the pike. That announcement landed yesterday morning with the Toronto-based betting business introducing same game parlays for esports (the company has plans to incorporate Valorant and other esports titles into the mix in the future).
The new POP (piece of product) to be known as Same Game Combos, will be available to Rivalry bettors in Ontario and other legal global jurisdictions for top League of Legends, Counter-Strike, and Dota 2 esports matches.
“Finding success among Millennial and Gen Z customers means being first to introduce new sports wagering experiences at the edge of technical and product innovation where this audience lives,” said Rivalry co-founder/CEO Steven Salz, Co-Founder and CEO. “Same Game Combos brings one of the most popular bets on the board to an audience of deeply engaged esports fans while extending Rivalry’s position at the vanguard of betting entertainment.”
PandaScore will provide the data feeds for the SGPs, which Rivalry hopes will spark more customers and hold on the company’s core esports offering. Betting on esports accounted for 90 per cent of Rivalry’s business last year.
“It's important to add depth to our products and more options for our users,” said David King, Rivalry’s director of product design. “We are building for an under-30 demographic that have high expectations for the entertainment products they consume. Delivering on that level of entertainment, while creating a meaningful user experience, adds material value to the Rivalry platform.”
With the NFL regular season just around the corner, we’re expecting to see more tech tweaks announced over the next two weeks.
How close is Canada to a match-fixing scandal?
Sunday will mark the two-year anniversary of The Safe and Regulated Sports Betting Act going into effect and allowing for legal single-event wagering across our home and native land. That means Canadians can put down a toonie that day on the winner of this weekend’s CP Women’s Open golf tournament in Vancouver, the CFL game between the Ottawa Redblacks and sad-sack Edmonton Elks, or the Blue Jays-Guardians tilt at the Rogers Centre.
When Bill C-218 was being debated by our elected leaders and the members of the Senate back in 2021, there was concern expressed in more than one corner about the potential for match-fixing especially given that there’s nothing in the Criminal Code of Canada that mentions it - although advocates for the bill two years ago argued that existing provisions of the code could be used to address competition manipulation.
The subject came up Monday in a Toronto Star piece by sports columnist Dave Feschuk. From Feschuk’s tinkling of the keyboard:
. . . . the list of betting-related news stories is long. The rules around gambling on one’s own sport and disclosing insider information are being regularly flouted. If there hasn’t been an explicit Canadian connection to recent stories, there are those who will tell you it’s only a matter of time that a sports-betting scandal happens here. And the fear among some experts is that Canada is ill-prepared to deal with it. The country doesn’t have a law on the books that explicitly prohibits match-fixing. There’s no national policy on the issue, no standard set of rules to which Canadian sportspeople must adhere. There’s not even a national reporting mechanism to raise an alarm — if an alarm ever becomes necessary.
The Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport, an advocate two years ago on the road to passing C-218, has become an active participant in working against match-fixing. That includes developing an education program in partnership with the Canadian Football League to teach players and other personnel about the league’s match manipulation policy, and hosting a two-day symposium on match fixing at the end of May. Jeremy Luke of the CCES told Sean Fitz-Gerald of The Athletic in June that a match-fixing scandal is coming to Canada, and Luke’s colleague Kevin Bean delivered the same warning to Feschuk.
“It’s not a matter of ‘if.’ It’s going to happen. A (betting-related) scandal will unfold (in Canada). And we won’t have the tools to deal with it,” said Kevin Bean of the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sports. “We can see in the statistics published by the different monitoring organizations that competition manipulation is happening globally. It has happened and is happening here in Canada. We’re one scandal away from a major issue. We need to take the steps now to get in front of it before that scandal happens.”
While Feschuk’s column also got into the furor around the avalanche of sports betting advertising, we are going to keep our eye on the match-fixing ball here. While it should be noted that the business side of the CCES would benefit from more investment into the prevention of match fixing, there’s certainly lots happening in other parts of the world, including most recently, that makes it quite difficult to ignore the warnings. To wit:
French tennis player Alexis Musialek received a lifetime ban this week after being found guilty of 39 breaches of the sport’s anti-corruption rules.
An Iowa State football player, accused of making bets on two games in which he played last season, has left the program.
Speaking of U.S. college football, there’s been much back and forth around the release of injury reports as an attempt to deter competition manipulation.
The sports commission of Brazil’s Chamber of Deputies have called for stakeholders to come together next month to discuss integrity concerns around soccer in the South American country.
Ken Adams of CDC Gaming Reports gave an around-the-horn summary/commentary of sports betting scandals south of the border.
According to Matt Hughes and Kieran Gill of The Daily Mail, sportsbook operator Betway reported suspicious activity around West Ham midfielder Lucas Paqueta in Premier League match back in March.
Mark Anderson of the American people’s wire service (thanks to Toronto Star hoops scribe Doug Smith for one of our favourite phrases in journalism) reported Monday that colleges are paying monitors to prevent player and staff from betting.
On another note, both PGA Tour golfers Jon Rahm and Max Homa expressed concerns over the past week about sports wagering playing a part in attempts by (idiot) fans to distract golfers. Rory McIlory also lent his voice to the discussion on Tuesday.
There is some good news, however. The integrity task force for the FIFA Women’s World Cup reported Tuesday that there was no suspicious betting or threats of match manipulation during the just-completed tournament’s 64 matches (although taking the international governing body for football at their word takes some Simone Biles-like flexibility. . . .).
As usual, we’ll watch, wait, and report what happens out there.
Billy Walters’ new book a proverbial pot-stirrer
To offer that Billy Walters’ new book is gaining some traction is akin to proclaiming that Shohei Ohtani is somewhat adept at redirecting baseballs with his bat.
Gambler: Secrets from a Life at Risk, the autobiography of the famous and controversial betting man has been a white-hot topic for discussion around the sports and betting worlds even before it was released yesterday. Walters’ life story is something else - raised in rural Kentucky by his grandmother in extreme poverty who at nine years old was a shark at hustling pool and pitching pennies. After selling used cars, hustling golf, and dipping his toes into bookmaker, Walters moved to Las Vegas and revolutionized sports betting strategy while becoming ridiculously rich.
Your humble chronicler plans to pony up for a copy of the book, but in the meantime, we’ve captured some of the coverage since its release, including:
Gambler contains advice from Walters for betting on NFL and U.S. college football.
Vanity Fair’s Dan Adler did the Q and A thing with Walters in advance of the wealthy wagerer releasing his memoir.
In his interview with Darren Rovell of The Action Network, Walters waxed on about match-fixing, online sportsbooks and today’s betting environment.
Walters devotes more than a few pages to his relationship with Phil Mickelson, including allegations that Mickelson has bet more than $1 billion on sports, and tried to lay a $400,000 wager on the 2012 Ryder Cup (the enigmatic golfer was playing in the competition).
Speaking of Mickelson, Walters says he went to prison because his former friend refused to step up on his behalf.
Covers scribe Geoff Zochodne read Gambler and came to the conclusion that Billy is built much differently than most of us.
John Smith of The Nevada Independent provided his own take - one of the Spockian eyebrow-raising kind - on the life and times of Walters.
Gaming News Canada Show podcast welcomes Harley Redlick
Harley Redlick, the Canadian sports bettor and sports betting legal consultant, appeared on the latest episode of the Gaming News Canada Show podcast presented by Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP.
In his usual straight-shooting style, Redlick answered our questions on several topics including some straight sports-betting advice around the MLB and NFL seasons along with a take or two on the regulated Ontario sports betting and igaming market at the 18-month mark, the partnership between ESPN and Penn, the integration of sports betting and sports media in Canada, and more.
On the Home Front
Nathalie Bergeron of the Quebec Online Gaming Coalition, in an op-ed for Le Soleil, made the case for regulated gambling in La Belle Province.
BeyondPlay has received a licence to thrill as a supplier in Ontario, its first foray into the regulated gambling landscape in North America.
The AGCO has also granted the same courtesy to Vancouver-based Playgon Games.
FOGNC Rebekah Jackson of GBG Plc has some helpful KYC information for operators in Ontari-ari-ari-o.
Several taps of ye olde Sherbrooke hockey twig for Ruth Bowes, the winner of a cool $35 million in the Western Canada Lottery Corporation’s July 25 Lotto Max.
Among the metrics put out by the Canadian Football League this week in its midseason report is a 179-per-cent hike in engagement with its revamped Game Zone interactive product. There’s no reference to the league’s sports betting partnerships with FanDuel and NEO.bet, although both have been recent additions to the league’s sponsorship roster.
Rising hockey broadcasting star Cheryl Pounder (who will always have a spot in your humble correspondent’s list of greatest skaters to don hockey gear), has replaced Ray Ferraro as the colour commentator for EA Sports’ NHL 24.
Classified (Jobs) Information
Good gig alert as Entain is searching for a Head of Commercial Gaming.
OLG is seeking the services of a Director, iCasino & iLottery Strategy and Innovation.
Atlantic Lottery has an opening for a Digital Marketing Associate.
The British Columbia Lottery Corporation is in hiring mode for a Senior Internal Auditor.
TheScore has a Gibraltar-based gig for a Sports Trader.
The AGCO has a posting for a Member, Horse Racing Appeal Panel.
Esports business Battlefy in Vancouver has a contract position available for a Gaming Content Strategist.
Greo is searching for a Project and Information Specialist.
Wanted by The Action Network: a Director of Sales - Playmaker Brand.
DraftKings is on a seek-and-employ mission for a Player Development Executive, Kentucky.
Boyle Sports is hiring a Head of Retail Operations - UK.
London (England) based Space Ape Games is searching for a Chief Marketing Officer.
The Saskatchewan Indian Gaming Authority has an array of employment opportunities available right now.
Penn Interactive is seeking a Customer Service Representative - Sports.
Rush Street Interactive has an opening for a Casino CRM Manager at its Chicago location.
iGaming Next is hiring a Digital Marketing Executive.
Betting Hero has an opening for a Market Lead - Sales Manager.
Underdog Fantasy is in the market for a Group Product Manager - Player Experience.
The UK Gambling Commission is looking for a Research and Impact Manager.
LiveScore Group currently has a plethora of employment possibilities.
Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment is looking for a Commercial Lead Host City Partners for the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
Gamelancer Media has room for a Community Director.
The NHL’s San Jose Sharks are in hiring mode for a Vice President of Marketing.
Boston Link is seeking an Account Manager.
BBTV is hiring a Partnerships Manager - Sports.
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