Pinnacle and Rivalry do a deal, and Ryan Reynolds is off and running with Nuvei
Two companies with their own stories to tell in the esports betting space get together on a $10 million financing commitment, while Mr. Ubiquitous takes his five-star brand to a fintech company.
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In this issue:
Rivalry and Pinnacle plays Let’s Make a Deal
We’re live on LinkedIn Audio this afternoon
Long-awaited White Paper unveiled in the UK
Mr. Ubiquitous goes to Montreal
Rivalry-Pinnacle deal the latest in a dynamic industry
At first blush, the announcement at the crack of dawn yesterday that a company was leading a $10 million strategic round of financing for a rival in the world of igaming was one of these moments:
Competitors getting together (including here in Ontario’s regulated market) at a time when lining up financing is as daunting as defeating the Boston Bruins had your humble correspondent scratching the greys out of his hair. A few minutes on Google Meet over the lunch hour with Rivalry co-founder and CEO Steven Salz, however, cleared up the confusion of yours truly.
“We have a lot of the same cultural vibes,” said Salz, sipping an energy drink (rhymes with Shed Full) after a couple of sleep-deprived evenings thanks to some administrative duties around the company’s latest financial reports and being the father of two young children.
Salz was referring to Pinnacle’s long-time ties to esports betting, which constitutes about 90 per cent of Toronto-based Rivalry’s betting business.
“Pinnacle struck the first esports bet in 2010 . . . they were experimenting in esports before anyone else,” he continued. “When we looked at different oddsmakers a few years ago, we found Pinnacle, integrated them into our business, and discovered quickly that we were aligned.
“As the oddsmaker, they see the bets placed on Rivalry, and therefore they have a unique understanding of the trends. We wanted money from strategic people who could help, and when people have skin in the game, I like that.”
Ditto for Pinnacle CEO Paris Smith.
“We have had a commercial partnership with Rivalry for a while, so when the opportunity came up to expand our partnership, it was an easy decision to make,” said Smith in a statement emailed to GNC. “Pinnacle has been around for almost 25 years and you don’t last this long in this business if you can’t recognize talent and potential. Steven Salz and the folks at Rivalry have added a breath of fresh air to our industry with their innovation and tradition-disrupting ways.
“We love what they are doing and they are one of our preferred partners, in part because they are home-grown in Ontario and we really appreciate their commitment to hiring and job creation locally. What better way to help grow the Ontario market than by encouraging the growth of the next generation of sportsbooks from the market? Everyone loves a local success story, and Rivalry is one of them.”
The Rivalry-Pinnacle announcement is the latest sign of the ever-dynamic state of the igaming industry.
During Kindred Group’s release of its latest quarterly results yesterday, it was revealed that the board of directors is seeking “strategic alternatives” for the company which could include being sold to help increase the stock price.
Another Toronto-based company, NorthStar Gaming, announced Tuesday the acquisition of Slapshot Media to open the door for the sports betting and online casino business to expand outside of Ontario through Slapshot’s relationship with Spreads.ca.
And, Erich Richter of the New York Post tied the buzz around potential M&A happenings within the gaming industry to reports last week about PointsBet putting the For Sale sign on its U.S. and Canada operations.
Back to Rivalry. A tip of the CCM Tacks bucket to iGaming Next for this graphic with Conor Mulheir’s coverage of the full-year 2022 and Q1 2023 results.
Before allowing Salz to leave and find a place for an afternoon siesta (that’s not really true), we asked for answers to a few questions. On the company’s performance in Ontario over the first 12 months of the legal, bigly competitive market: “Ontario’s going to be a profitable P&L. Ontario has enough allocation (of resources) and It’s going in the right direction. We want to operate in our own backyard, so we’ll continue to nurture and grow the market.”
On staying the course with its advertising and marketing strategy: “We’re exiting our crawl phase and moving into the walking phase. We’re not going to try and outbonus DraftKings with NHL bettors. We had a launch party around a CS:GO (esports) event last weekend, and had 250 people attend on a Sunday afternoon.
On taking Rivalry’s business to other provinces: “We’re not going to do that right now. We want to get Ontario to a good place.”
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UK government releases long-awaited White Paper
After months of head fakes, dekes, double pumps, and a Lido shuffle or two, the UK government’s Culture Secretary delivered this morning its plans for a substantial reforming of gambling laws across the pond.
Among the proposed changes are:
A statutory gambling operator levy to ensure that operators help fund treatment services and research, including through the National Health Service.
New stake limits for online slots games. The government will also consult on measures to give greater protections for 18–24 year-olds who the evidence shows are at heightened risk of harm.
Frictionless player protection checks to protect those most at risk of harm before unaffordable or harmful losses are incurred.
Extra powers for the Gambling Commission to enable it to tackle black market operators through court orders and work with Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to take down and block illegal gambling sites.
Rules to prevent bonus offers harming vulnerable people - for example, looking at how free bets or spins are constructed and targeted to stop them being harmful.
Closing loopholes to make sure under-18s cannot gamble either online or via cash fruit machines, and includes bringing football pools betting in line with National Lottery play for over-18s only.
From Culture Secretary Lucy Frazer’s oral statement to Parliament:
Mr. Speaker, almost every Member of Parliament will have met constituents whose lives have been blighted by gambling harm.
"The online world has transformed so many parts of life - and gambling is no exception. It’s our responsibility to make sure our rules and regulations keep up with the real world, so that we can protect the most vulnerable while also allowing everyone else to enjoy gambling without harm.
We’re live on LinkedIn Audio this afternoon
We will get together to do the roundtable thing this afternoon on LinkedIn Audio for The Gaming News Canada Show presented by Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP.
We drop the first cliche shortly after 2 p.m. ET, and as always, we welcome new voices to the 60-minute conversation on the latest news and trends across the wide world of sports betting and gaming.
And, ICYMI, our latest Gaming News Canada Show podcast included special guests Jessica Welman and Aidan Brain from SBC Americas.
Mr. Ubiquitous goes to Montreal
Timing isn’t everything, but in the case of the new partnership between actor/football club owner/entrepreneur/proud Canadian Ryan Reynolds and Nuvei, it’s pretty damn good.
Within a span of less than two weeks after the Montreal-based payments company announced that Blake Lively’s other half was coming on board as an investor, the Little Soccer Team That Could owned by Reynolds and his buddy Rob McElhenney had secured promotion to the UK Football League, and are now trying to lure Welsh soccer star Gareth Bale out of retirement.
To the credit of Nuvei, a member of the Canadian Gaming Association (we expect Paul Burns and the folks at SBC have already couriered Ryan an invitation using calligraphy on the finest stock of paper - made from B.C. lumber, of course - to attend the Canadian Gaming Summit in mid-June, it wasted no time making eh with Deadpool’s new role in the company. That includes a co-branded website, and a couple of videos that quite wonderfully play the Canadian card:
And this:
Your intrepid reporter reached out to Reynolds via his @VanCity Twitter account to speak about his latest business venture, and await a response (we’re not using the “we play hockey and drink Granville Island English Bay Ale” card yet). A back and forth with the communications folks at Nuvei this week leaves us optimistic that we’ll have more to report on this coming together in a future edition of GNC.
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