CanadianGamingBusiness

The Responsible Gambling Council (RGC) has partnered with Toronto sports ownership conglomerate Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment (MLSE) with the aim of increasing visibility and awareness of sports betting myths.

The campaign will see RGC responsible gambling messages delivered prominently at every home game of a Toronto sports team at Scotiabank Arena and BMO Field, as well as select away games. The campaign will extend throughout the season across all MLSE teams including the Toronto Maple Leafs, the Toronto Raptors, Toronto FC and the Toronto Argonauts.

The RGC noted in a release that “it is essential for fans to understand the associated risks and to engage in gambling with access to tools required to participate in informed play.”

“RGC’s partnership with MLSE is a significant step forward in our united goals of promoting responsible gambling,” said Elaine McDougall, VP of marketing and communications at the RGC. “By leveraging MLSE’s platforms and brand, we can engage a larger..

The Responsible Gambling Council (RGC) has settled on its replacement for retiring CEO Shelley White.

After an extensive search process, the RGC has appointed Sarah McCarthy, the former Vice President of Strategic Initiatives at the Rick Hansen Foundation. McCarthy will start work officially on Jan. 5, 2025.

In a memo to stakeholders, the RGC described McCarthy as “a collaborative executive leader with 15 years of experience in leading teams to build and deliver social impact through the development of innovative solutions to complex challenges.”

At the Rick Hansen Foundation, a charity dedicated to raising awareness, changing attitudes, helping create accessible spaces, and liberating the amazing potential of people with disabilities, McCarthy’s responsibilities encompassed strategic and operational planning, program implementation, and the stewardship of impactful business development strategies.

Under her leadership, the organization successfully launched and implemented the RHF..

Former Toronto Raptor Tracy McGrady has plenty of experience as a victor, having twice been named NBA scoring champion during his career.

Now, the seven-time All-Star is making it official. The 45-year-old has signed up with BVGroup as the BetVictor brand’s Safer Gambling Ambassador in Canada.

McGrady only played three of his 16 NBA seasons in Toronto but remains a popular figure among the city’s basketball fans, thanks in no small part to the double-act he formed with his cousin, Raptors legend Vince Carter, in the 1999-2000 season which led the franchise to their first-ever postseason berth.

Now, he will help to promote BetVictor’s responsible gambling practices and raise awareness of responsible betting behaviours among the brand’s Canadian customers.

“Safer gambling is an important issue across Canada and I look forward to helping to promote this message alongside BetVictor to encourage Canadian customers to bet and play safely and responsibly,” said McGrady.

“We are thrilled ..

The Responsible Gambling Council (RGC) has illustrated how a year of education, certification and other action continued to propagate responsible gambling in Ontario and beyond.

In its 2023-24 annual report, titled “Impact: Action Drives Change,” the RGC noted that as rapidly evolving technology, media, politics and culture continue to transform the industry, it has become more important to raise RG standards and produce evidence-based recommendations to guide the strategic development of policies and regulations.

Against that backdrop, the RGC said industry leaders have contributed increased funding to advance evidence-informed recommendations for gambling marketing and advertising and digital health policy. The RGC called that “an impact that will result in ripple effects throughout our industry.”

The momentum of those industry-wide efforts is resulting in meaningful impact, said the council.

In particular, RGC conducted research in partnership with Playtech into where new opport..

Canadian Premier League (CPL) soccer teams have undertaken an International Betting Integrity Association (IBIA) sports betting integrity program designed to educate players in the league on the intersection of sports and gambling.

Created by the IBIA using its 3Rs training model, the program utilized a combination of dedicated in-person training and online resources. Sessions were delivered by the Professional Footballers’ Association Canada (PFA Canada) through its Protecting the Integrity of the Game workshops.

In total, nearly 200 players have been trained through the IBIA/PFA Canada partnership at all eight CPL teams. The program started in Ontario and finished in Alberta, also covering teams in Nova Scotia, Manitoba and British Colombia.

It concluded the first part of a two-year player education agreement between IBIA and PFA Canada. The program, first announced in May, was the first to be delivered from a $300,000 three-year fund invested by IBIA and its members bet365, Betwa..

In a Canadian Senate Transport and Communications Committee meeting on Oct. 2 discussing Bill S-269, the National Framework on Advertising for Sports Betting Act, witnesses testified that Canada’s gaming and broadcast regulators are doing all within their power to ensure due diligence is taken around gambling ads.

However, while the need for a national framework was contested, there was a consensus that more work is required to equip all parties with the knowledge needed.

“There’s value in coordinated research across the country,” said Canadian Gaming Association (CGA) President and CEO Paul Burns. “There’s a gap, especially around advertising. We as an industry would love to see more. What we learn from evidence-based research gives us tools to better protect players.” Burns suggested that such research could be achieved without legislation.

Burns had argued in his opening statement that he doesn’t believe S-269 is necessary, as most of what the bill aims to do is already being don..

After more than three months of dormancy, the Canadian Senate debate on gambling advertising picked up again this week with four hours of sessions discussing betting ads.

The Transport and Communications Committee held a pair of meetings on Sept. 24-25 regarding Bill S-269, the National Framework on Advertising for Sports Betting Act.

These were the first hearings on S-269 since June, wherein senators discussed the legislation that would develop a national framework for sports betting advertising, identify measures to regulate ads, and focus on finding ways to prevent and help both minors and problem gamblers from being impacted.

During those June sessions, several senators expressed regret over not considering deeply enough the ramifications of the decision to expand online gaming and betting in 2021. This time around, numerous witnesses from various working backgrounds had their say. A core focus was the complex concern around the role social media plays in disseminating widesprea..

New research from the Canadian Gaming Association (CGA) suggests that regulatory policies around gambling advertising are evolving at a faster rate than relevant evidence and warns the misalignment could lead to regulations that are wide of the mark.

The CGA, along with leaders from GP Consulting and Eilers & Krejcik, published a comprehensive research paper evaluating gambling advertising and regulatory intervention.

The idea was to undertake what the CGA called a “rapid review” of available academic literature on the responsible gambling-related impacts of sports betting and online gaming advertising. The CGA notes that “rapid reviews” are recognized by the World Health Organization and governments worldwide as efficient tools for informing health policy and communicating information to stakeholders.

The paper drew upon dozens of academic, peer-reviewed publications from the last 10 years that researched exposure to gambling advertising and its impact on consumers’ gambling behavi..

The Responsible Gambling Council (RGC) is working with other leading responsible gambling organizations to develop a new national college responsible gambling education campaign.

In partnership with EPIC Global Solutions, Kindbridge Behavioral Health and the operator-led Responsible Online Gaming Association (ROGA), the Toronto-based RGC will create and implement a comprehensive, evidence-based program specifically tailored to the unique needs of university-aged students.

The initiative will leverage digital delivery tools to provide responsible gambling and financial literacy education to students across diverse campuses and demographics throughout the U.S.

“For over 20 years, RGC has worked with young adults, post-secondary institutions, and leaders to understand the unique needs of this priority population,” said RGC CEO Shelley White, who is retiring at the end of this year. “All RGC prevention programs are evidence-based and customized to resonate with this hard-to-reach audien..

Ontario’s new centralized self-exclusion tool is designed to be an “intuitive” way for both operators and players to regulate users’ gambling habits, said Integrity Compliance 360’s (IC360) President Eric Frank.

iGaming Ontario (iGO) announced at the start of August that it had selected a joint bid from IC360 and fellow technology specialist IXUP to develop the new province-wide system for Ontario’s gaming market.

iGO says the self-exclusion tool will be the first of its kind in a North American market. Ontario players over the age of 19 will be able to sign up for the program, which will then block them from using all of their online gaming accounts with regulated operators in the province.

Speaking on the Gaming News Canada show, hosted by Steve McAllister, after the announcement of the multi-year contract, Frank gave some more details on what the tool will look to accomplish.

“We had three fundamental factors we wanted to meet in our system and what we built and the first was to..