John Levy and sons to say farewell to Penn
The founder of theScore will take his leave after the Super Bowl. Also, Q2 was of the rather good variety for PointsBet Canada, and Waterloo startup Quarter4 lands a buyer.
In this issue:
Levy family to bid adieu to Penn
A positive Q2 for PointsBet Canada
Waterloo company Quarter4 lands a buyer
A ray of sunshine, courtesy of IBIA
Canadian connections to ICE London
Gaming News Canada Show to talk Super Bowl
Speaking of SB LVIII. . . .
Levy family to make their exit from Penn
The biggest surprise from the announcement that the Levy family and Penn Entertainment were parting ways is the “WYOMISSING, Pa.” placeline on the news release that was distributed late yesterday afternoon.
When Penn acquired the Canadian sports media/sports betting company for $2 billion (a combo of Amarican bucks and stocks) in the summer of 2021, it was agreed that theScore founder John Levy and sons Benjie, Aubrey and Noah would stay on and support theScore’s entry into the regulated Ontario gambling industry in April 2022. Since then, theScore has provided tech support to Penn’s partnership with Barstool Sports, and more recently, the departure of Barstool and the arrival of ESPN to create ESPN Bet.
Included in reaction to the announcement:
During the Levys’ run with the American owners, Benjie served as head of Penn Interactive and chief operating officer of theScore, Aubrey oversaw content and marketing and Noah led the product development team responsible for integrating the Barstool and ESPN Bet initiatives while John stayed on as executive chair of theScore. As is the case in many matters of M&A, the transition period includes the previous owners riding off into the sunset at some point.
“This transition plan comes at a natural inflection point, with the migration to our proprietary technology platform complete, theScore's media and betting business delivering record results, and ESPN BET off to a strong start,” Jay Snowden, CEO and President of Penn Entertainment, said in yesterday’s communique. “The Levys are a family of successful entrepreneurs and are truly pioneers in the sports media and gaming industry. I am very proud of what we’ve been able to accomplish with them, including the development of an extremely deep and talented bench at PENN Interactive.”
From Benjie Levy:
"Working at PENN has been extremely rewarding and we want to thank Jay, Todd George and the entire PENN team for their partnership and support as we brought these two organizations together to execute on our uniquely integrated media and betting strategy. Our focus on creating industry leading technology and products has been second only to our efforts in building a world class team and fostering a special place to work. We could not be more proud of this team and what we have accomplished together, and we look forward to watching as they continue to build upon the successful foundation we established at theScore.”
And, from John Levy:
“The enduring success of theScore is due to the passionate and committed team that helped launch, develop and innovate our products to provide the best possible fan experience. Empowering fans with a seamlessly integrated media and betting experience has been core to our mission since day one. That strategy has led to the success of theScore and theScore Bet in Ontario and ESPN BET in the U.S. and will continue to differentiate this online gaming business going forward.”
John Levy politely declined our request for an interview yesterday, saying he’ll be happy to chat down the road. When that happens, we anticipate that the man who started Headline Sports in 1997 and shrewdly hung onto theScore’s mobile business when he sold the TV network to Rogers in 2012 will have an announcement about his latest venture as a disruptor in the Canadian sports business space.
PointsBet’s Ontario business part of a positive Q2
As noted before in this corner, getting detailed information on operators in the regulated gambling environment of Ontari-ari-ari-o is akin to NHL defencemen trying to flag down a speeding Connor McDavid.
PointsBet is an exception. The Aussie-owned operator released its Q2 financials this week, and the numbers paint a rosy picture for the company’s efforts in the Great White North (we write this having very little knowledge as to how PB is faring with its competitors in a crowded Ontario market because of the lack of information provided by those competitors).
The highlights of the Q2 report from a Canadian perspective:
And:
The company pointed to integration of Vancouver-based Strive Gaming, which increased its menu of online games almost threefold, and improved promotional offers for playing prominent roles in the best revenue yet on the igaming side. Last October, the Ontario business also appointed its first head of casino with the hiring of former Ingenuity Gaming and Bally’s executive Brooke Hilton to sharpen its. . . er. . . igame - including the acquisition of more casino-first customers.
During an earnings call Tuesday evening, CEO Sam Swanell was asked about what’s happening with the operator’s business in Ontario.
From Swanell:
. . . If you double net margins from 2.6% to 5.4% and -- that is going to have an impact on turnover, I mean that's just -- you are winning client, you're winning money more effectively off the clients with less ability for them to reinvest. What I would say is not the same extent as Australia, but we'd had -- the Canadian market only launched in April '22. I think as you go through these periods for the first time you're in more acquisition mode, you're trying things. Yes, just more focused on bringing clients through the door. And then, as the business gets a little bit more mature, we execute a little bit better. You get more refined with your approach.
So, yes, I mean we definitely want to be yielding at -- we don't want to be yielding at net margins of 2.6% like we were at this time last year. We want to be yielding more, 5.4% is probably above expectations to be honest, but we seem to have settled there because in the first quarter, we had 5.3%. I would also point out that in Q1, handle was 44.2%. So, we haven't quite doubled it, but it's a pretty big step up, but reflective of again that in Q1 net win margins were also above 5%, so particularly high.
We’re doing due diligence to have a PointsBet Canada voice on this afternoon’s Gaming News Canada Show.
Canadian betting startup Quarter4 lands a buyer
When Kelly Brooks and Danijela Covic met Stuart Simms for the first time last July, the co-founders of Quarter4 immediately had a good feeling that a conversation about an acquisition of the Waterloo company they started in 2019 wasn’t just empty-calories talk.
“The three of us had a conversation and right off the bat, Stuart seemed to be exactly what we were looking for,” Covic told Gaming News Canada yesterday afternoon during a conversation on the Google Meets with her partner and your inquisitive correspondent. “He understood what Quarter4 is.”
Added Brooks: “It was a very direct call and it was incredible to speak with someone who’s decisive and also a visionary. We connected with him right away because he understood the technology and the potential for it. It was a really, really amazing conversation.”
Simms is the group CEO of FairPlay Sports Media, the company known until last week as Oddschecker Global Media. Just days after the rebranding announcement, FairPlay announced Monday it was acquiring Quarter 4 - the Waterloo-based business with 13 employees that uses artificial intelligence to educate and engage sports fans and bettors.
What started early last summer as a client “sales save” meeting set up by Covic after learning of Oddschecker’s restructuring plans for its North American business resulted in a meeting between Covic, Brooks and Simms. After almost six months of meetings in the UK, New York and Canada, the deal was closed in the middle of January.
“We had acquisition discussions (with other companies) for over a year. The fact that (Simms) would follow up on everything and had a vision right away. . . there are was a continuous back and forth with no holds barred,” Brooks said.
In Quarter4, FairPlay acquires a business that leverages data, content and sports predictions with a focus on North American professional and NCAA sports. It’s expected the new owners will provide Quarter4’s products to existing clients such as iconic Italian sports media outlet Gazzetta Dello Sport and DAZN, and will integrate the products into its BetTech vision.
“The acquisition of Quarter4 is a significant milestone for our group, giving our various brands the ability to unleash our already market-leading data and tech platform with the unique insights and smarter behavioural analytic capabilities of Q4,” Simms said earlier this week. “Pioneering BetTech is critical to our future strategy and ambitious growth prospects, and bringing Quarter4 into the group can act as the catalyst for many new and improved product developments in the coming months and beyond.”
Quarter4 is preparing to release its Super Bowl brackets followed by its dynamic March Madness product for next month’s NCAA basketball tournament.
“Our employees are excited,” Brooks said. “We’ve been having product meetings this week between our AI team and product people, and their product group. It’s been nothing but positive.”
“When you run as a startup, you’re really on a budget. Now there’s an opportunity to scale how we’ve always wanted to.”
Added Covic: “We're excited to be part of a global company. The opportunity to be part of a bigger enterprise is something our employees were looking for. It’s not just Kelly and I. Our team has helped us build this company and innovate. We’re really lucky to have them.”
Covic and Brooks will continue in their current roles and don’t be surprised if Simms brings the two women into helping lead other parts of the FairPlay business.
“Danijela and I are tenacious. . . we made a lot of sacrifices to keep this company going,” said Brooks. “(The acquisition) is a huge milestone. It’s been a little bit of luck and a little bit of being in the right place at the right time.
“We have a great product, and we have a great team.”
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A ray of sunshine from IBIA’s 2023 Integrity Report
For now, the International Betting Integrity Association appears to be winning the war against corruption in sport.
IBIA released its 2023 Integrity Report yesterday, highlighting a 35-per-cent year-over-year decrease in the number of suspicious betting alerts. That would be 184 alerts last year, compared to 285 in 2022.
Also, from the association’s news release:
The report also highlights that IBIA’s suspicious betting activity data helped to prove that 74 matches were corrupted and found that there was an increase in the number of clubs, players and officials successfully sanctioned for violating sports betting rules. When considering the number of alerts reported, it is important to recognise that IBIA’s ability to detect and deter suspicious betting activity has increased significantly in recent years: it now accounts for over US$137bn ($183 billion in Canuck bucks) of global betting turnover per annum, making IBIA the world’s leading operator-run integrity monitoring body.
“The fall in last year’s global alert numbers is encouraging,” said IBIA CEO Khalid Ali in a statement. “It confirms that our world leading monitoring and alert network is making a very important contribution to deterring criminals from seeking to defraud our members , and that increased collaboration between IBIA, sports and regulators is a winning combination.
“Despite this progress, we must remain vigilant and recognize that the greatest threat to sports integrity comes from unregulated operators, most notably in Asia.”
Soccer and tennis were No. 1 and 2 when it came to the number of suspicious betting alerts. The UK, Czech Republic, Brazil and Spain were the leading countries when it also came to not-so-good activity. There was one report of suspicious betting in our home and native land last year, involving tennis.
To read the complete report from IBIA, click here.
Canadian content set for ICE’s London sendoff
For one final time, the global gambling industry will gather in London next week for the ICE conference. The conference organizers are saying cheerio to ExCel London and moving the event to Barcelona and a larger venue in 2025.
As usual, there will be a large Canadian contingent flying across the pond to attend the year’s first major gaming and sports betting rendezvous, including some folks from here at home who will have speaking roles on the first two days of ICE. Responsible Gambling Council head honcho Shelley White will headline a Setting the Standard on Responsible Marketing discussion Monday afternoon. On Tuesday morning, Ontario Attorney General Doug Downey will have the stage to deliver some bon mots about the province’s regulated gambling market. A roundtable on the Canadian landscape will include the aforementioned Downey, Canadian Gaming Association grand poobah Paul Burns, iGaming Ontario boss Martha Otton, Rush Street Interactive’s Canadian leader Bruce Caughill, McCarthy-Tetrault senior counsel Danielle Bush, and GeoComply exec Lindsay Slader.
For the Esports Betting Conference at ICE, Rivalry product guys David King and Andre Nogueira will speak on a GenZ and Sports Betting panel a week from today.
Some Super Bowl scuttlebutt coming to GNCS
When we gather on LinkedIn Audio to virtually break bread this afternoon (1 p.m.) the menu of topics will include next week’s Super Bowl LVIII. Long-time sports trader and regular Gaming News Canada Show guest Phill Gray will walk us through the various betting offerings around the beeg game.
We’re on a mission to have someone from PointsBet Canada on board to discuss the aforementioned Q2 results. And, we’ll also have a chin wag about the biggest news of the week, including the partnership between The King and DraftKings.
Speaking of Super Bowl LVIII. . . . .
Gaming News Canada kicks off its SB LVIII coverage over the week with some items of note:
David Highhill, the NFL’s man in charge of sports betting, said this week there will only be three ads by wagering operators shown during the Super Bowl TV broadcast in the U.S. “We’ve put some policies in place to limit the amount of advertising for sports betting that happens in our live games,” Highhill said. “It’s roughly one ad per quarter. All told, less than 5% of all in-game ads are sports betting ads.”
Steve Rushin writes for Sports Illustrated on the Super Bowl coming to Vegas for the first time.
Both the Chiefs and Niners will not be allowed to bet in Vegas casinos during Super Bowl week. Geez, that could mean spending a lot of time watching the Fountains of Bellagio. . . .
FanDuel Canada is having some fun on the Taylor-Travis front with its Super Bowl novelting wagers, offering customers an opportunity to bet on if the Chiefs tight end will pop the question to the First Lady of Swifties.
Some scoopage from Steve Ruddock in his Straight to the Point newsletter that “a significant operator in the regulated US sports betting space relayed to some of its affiliate partners that it is cutting off new affiliate registrations around the Super Bowl from February 1 to 11”.
Jon Springer of Ad Age told the story of Rob Gronkowski and John Cena’s appearances in FanDuel’s Super Bowl ad campaign.
From the X files of Geoff Zochodne: the NFL season has resulted in rather large metrics for Simplebet.
Finally, the first $1 million bet for the beeg game was placed this week by a Caesars Sportsbook customer in. . . . Michigan?
On the Home Front
Our aforementioned coverage of theScore and PointsBet prodded us to take a trip down memory lane and deliver to our loyal subscribers a conversation Mark Silver led with John Levy and Nic Sulsky during the virtual Canadian Gaming Summit in June 2021:
Bet99 is exploiting Kinectify’s technology to make its AML compliance program more efficient. You can read the case study by clicking here.
Breaking news this a.m. that RAW iGaming products will be available for BetMGM customers in Ontario.
The Responsible Gambling Council recently hosted its first Provincial Roundtable on the Prevention of Gambling Harm with 14 Ontario organizations represented.
Loto-Québec has awarded a contract to install new video lottery terminals to International Game Technology. Aristocrat Gaming will also be installing VLTs in La Belle Province.
Two people are facing 21 charges related to fraudulent activity on OLG’s igaming website.
Speaking of OLG, the corp has put out an RFP for a “Social Responsibility VOR”.
And, one more time with feeling from OLG, comms guy Tony Bitonti passed along a few nuggets Tuesday: 81 per cent of ProLine players made money by taking the Lions on the point spread in Sunday’s NFC title game loss to the Niners. Also, only 25 per cent of PL customers had Jannik Sinner knocking off Daniil Medvedev to win the men’s title at the Australian Open.
An igaming report from TESTA singled out Evolution as the fastest live blackjack supplier in Ontario’s regulated market.
The deadline to apply for the Responsible Gambling Council’s Tibor Barsony Bursary is being extended to Feb. 16.
Finally, NeoPollard Interactive is the latest member of the Canadian Gaming Association.
Classified (Jobs) Information
Sports Info Solutions is seeking a Senior Vice President, Sales.
Penn National Gaming is in the market for a Vice President of Marketing.
Underdog Fantasy is hiring a VP of Product Design.
Wanted by iGaming Ontario: a Senior Analyst, Market Insights.
FanDuel is hiring a Media Planning Manager for its Toronto office. At its Philly location, FD has an opening for a VIP Account Manager, Casino.
BV Group is searching for a Senior Acquisition Executive - Canada.
Toronto-based Stablecorp Inc. is in hiring mode for a Chief Compliance Officer.
TheScore has an opportunity to work in Gibraltar as a Sports Trader - Fan Engagement.
Wanted by FairPlay Sports Media: a Head of SEO.
EA Sports has an opening in Toronto for a Senior Analyst.
Rivalry is seeking a Partner Marketing Specialist - Philippines.
BCLC is accepting applications for an Officer, Gaming Compliance position. The lottery and gaming corp is also looking for a Promotions Marketing Specialist.
Delaware North Gaming has a remote opportunity for a Director of Gaming Operations, Gamewise.
The very good folks at BettingJobs.com have put out an all points bulletin for a Marketing Director position in the United Kingdom. They’re also on a search-and-employ mission for a client seeking an iGaming Media Director in Costa Rica.
LeoVegas Group is seeking for its business in the Netherlands a Marketing Manager, and has a job opening in Malta for a Live Casino Coordinator.
The newly rebranded FairPlay Sports Media has an opportunity for a Finance Business Partner.
Gambling.com Group has an opening for a U.S.-based Senior Communications Specialist.
Everi Holdings is seeking for its Boston office a Field Service Technician (Casino/Gaming), and has another opening in Pala, CA for a Site Technician (Casino Gaming/ATMs).
Hard Rock Digital has a Project Manager gig available in Malta, and wants to hire a Senior Privacy Governance Analyst at the same location.
Pinnacle is looking for a Customer Service Representative - Portuguese and English, and also has an opening for an IOC Support Agent. In Toronto, there’s a position available for a Senior Azure Cloud Platform Engineer.
Light & Wonder is hiring a Systems Integration Engineer.
California gaming marketing company BC Ventures is seeking a Partnerships Coordinator.
Hero Gaming has an opening for a Junior Affiliate Manager.
Stats Perform has an opportunity in the U.S. for a Territory Account Manager.
White Hat Gaming is searching for an Integration and Gaming Services Specialist, and is seeking a Business Analyst - Process Improvement.
The Athletic is hiring a Senior Executive Producer for its New York location.
NBCUniversal is in hiring mode for a Sports Editor, NBC News Digital.
The NHL is in the market for a Director, Multicultural Content & Audience Development.
The Blue Jays of Toronto have an opening for a Creative Director.
Hockey Canada is looking to bring on board a Governance Advisor.
Wanted by the Canadian Olympic Committee: an Associate Analyst, Digital Marketing.
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