Canada
The Future of Play: New Horizons Conference 2021
The last twelve months has seen the way we work, live and play change dramatically in light of the global pandemic. At BCLC, we’ve pivoted our approach to business and accelerated our player health response to meet our players’ needs in a quickly changing societal context and entertainment landscape.
For some individuals, the rapid pace of change, combined with increased isolation, has been difficult. To make it easier for our players to access resources and to keep gambling fun and safe during these challenging times, BCLC has made GameSense Advisors available to players by phone and by online chat through PlayNow.com. GameSense Advisors have experience in areas such as mental health, cultural sensitivity and appropriate-response training to support players in a variety of situations. They also assist players by providing information that is essential to making informed decisions and connecting players to appropriate support resources where needed.
Now is the time to look at ways to move from the “new normal” to a “new future”. At this year’s Ninth Annual New Horizons in Responsible Gambling Conference, our theme, Player Health Reboot: Resetting the Future, embodies both reflection and imagination – with the clear purpose of inspiring success now and in the future.
Joining us as our keynote speaker is Futurist Sanjay Khanna, an expert in strategic foresight, who will kick-off two days of exciting dialogue by sharing his insights into global change and its implications for cultures of play and innovation in a post-pandemic era.
I had the opportunity to chat with Sanjay recently and ask him some tough questions about the future of the gambling industry and how the concept of play will evolve along with technological innovations and a drive towards greater sustainability. Here’s a preview into my discussion with him, and what he will he talk about at New Horizons.
Q: New Horizons connects industry-leading experts, specialists, and researchers from around the world to find solutions to keep gambling safer and reduce harms. If you could give one piece of advice to the gambling industry, what would it be?
A: Focus on keeping gambling safer and reducing harms by taking an innovation-led approach to developing new gambling experiences. These should involve a wider array of considerations about experience design, social engagement and evidence-based risk mitigation. There’s massive space for really exciting kinds of innovation that are considerate of people, are thoughtful, and use evidence and research effectively.
Q: You write that climate change defines us more than we realize by leading to lower earnings, uncertain employment prospects and mental-health burdens. What does the gambling industry need to do today to build resilience?
A: There are five important climate crisis stakeholders: Customers, employees, communities, allied businesses, and governments. For customers and employees, the industry could strive, for example, to attract socially responsible gamblers, who desire digitally and architecturally compelling gambling environments with a mix of exciting engagement and serenity. For communities, allied businesses, and governments, the industry could use social innovation to foster cooperation to address climate risks and build resilience. The industry will also need to take steps to mitigate physical risks of extreme weather and climate change to digital and physical infrastructure assets. From this perspective, two keys to resilience building include developing new physical infrastructures to higher engineering standards, as well as powering operations with renewable and redundant energy systems.
Q: Do you think our concept of play will change?
A: The concept of play won’t change, but where and how the instinct of play is harnessed will expand with further gamification of apps, services, and work, too. I’m concerned, for example, that play will continue to be monetized at scale with competitive rather than cooperative play impulses utterly dominant. Competitive elements of play can be more problematic if chronic economic stressors after the pandemic make people feel more desperate and therefore contribute to increasing individuals’ stress levels. That’s why one pertinent question for gambling innovators is: How might digital and physical gambling experiences be fortified with more creative and cooperative play instincts?
Q: With your future perspective, when it comes to the gambling industry ten years from now, what would be the three trends you would predict based on current conditions?
A: Deeper digitization, more innovative use of virtual reality, augmented reality and Internet of Things technologies to support the development of really interesting and compelling experiences that are part of the gambling experience. Underlining that is what I hope will be a focus on ways the gambling industry might enrich society by emphasizing player health, sustainability and resilience within purpose.
To learn more, join us at New Horizons where Sanjay will further explore concepts of play and innovation as well as the risks associated with data and technological advancements. He will also highlight the need to explore plausible scenarios within which play may occur, while inspiring conference participants to reboot player health by harnessing values of responsible gambling and breakthrough innovation.
New Horizons in Responsible Gambling takes place March 9 and 10, 2021 virtually. Sanjay Khanna’s keynote address kicks things off on March 9.
Soft2Bet, a leading casino and sportsbook platform provider, has joined the International Betting Integrity Association (IBIA) and activated its membership in Ontario, Canada, following its licensing in the Canadian province.
Soft2bet obtained its Certificate of Registration from the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO) at the end of March, where the company’s Ontario-focused brand Tooniebet.com will now feed into IBIA’s world-leading sports betting integrity monitoring platform before worldwide implementation in the coming months.
IBIA includes over 50 of the world’s leading sports betting and gaming companies, who operate over 125 sports betting brands. Soft2Bet’s decision to join the association further strengthens its own internal betting integrity protocols and IBIA’s position as the world’s leading sports betting integrity monitoring body.
David Yatom Hay, General Counsel at Soft2Bet, commented: “Soft2Bet is delighted to be joining the IBIA as we strengthen our own betting integrity monitoring processes and play our part in furthering the IBIA’s long-standing work on this key issue. Ontario is a world class iGaming jurisdiction; it will be the first market where we will implement our IBIA membership and we look forward to deploying the monitoring infrastructure worldwide in all the other markets in which we operate.”
Khalid Ali, CEO of IBIA, said: “Soft2Bet is a very welcome addition to IBIA, further strengthening our position in the Ontario market. The operator’s decision to join IBIA demonstrates its desire to utilise the best integrity protection available for its sportsbook product. The association is delighted to be able to integrate Tooniebet within our integrity monitoring system and looks forward to working closely with Soft2Bet to maintain the high integrity of its sportsbook.”
IBIA is a not-for-profit body that has no competing conflicts with the delivery of commercial services to other sectors and is run by operators and for operators to protect regulated sports betting markets from match-fixing. IBIA’s global monitoring network is a highly effective anti-corruption tool, detecting and reporting suspicious activity in regulated betting markets.
Through the IBIA monitoring network it is possible to track transactional activities linked to individual customer accounts. IBIA members generate more than $300bn in annual betting turnover (handle), accounting for approximately 50% of the global commercial regulated land-based and online sports betting sector, and in excess of 50% for online alone.
IBIA recently released a report on the Availability of Sports Betting Products which highlighted Ontario as a leading regulated gambling jurisdiction, with an expected onshore channelisation for sports betting of 92% in 2024 forecast to rise to 97% in2028. IBIA currently represents over 60% of the private sports betting operators licensed in the province. All online sportsbetting operators licensed in Ontario are required to be part of a betting integrity monitoring body.
IBIA’s Q1 2024 report detailed 56 alerts during the quarter. IBIA alerts contributed to the investigations and subsequent successful sanctioning of 21 clubs, players and officials in 2023, an increase on the 15 sanctioned in 2022.
SCCG Management has signed a contract with the British Columbia Lottery Corporation (BCLC), the B.C. Crown corporation which conducts and manages commercial gambling in the province, including lotteries, casinos, and online gaming. This partnership aims to undertake a comprehensive assessment and strategic enhancement of BCLC’s diverse operations.
The work between SCCG and BCLC will involve a thorough review of technological infrastructures, strategic market positioning, and the integration of various gaming modalities. SCCG’s extensive expertise will be pivotal in harmonizing BCLC’s online and physical gaming experiences.
Stephen Crystal, Founder and CEO of SCCG Management, said: “Our collaboration with BCLC represents a remarkable opportunity to push the boundaries of innovation within the gaming industry. We are committed to deploying our resources and expertise to enhance BCLC’s operational efficiencies and customer engagement strategies. It’s an honor to partner with an organization that has a robust impact on the community through its support of public initiatives.”
The Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO) has mandated all Ontario-registered sportsbook operators to halt offering and accepting wagers on World Boxing Association (WBA) events immediately. This measure is being taken to protect the Ontario betting public following concerns that WBA-sanctioned boxing matches are not adequately being safeguarded against match-fixing and insider betting.
Since December 2023, the AGCO has been conducting a comprehensive review of suspicious wagering activity on a WBA-sanctioned title fight between Yoenis Tellez and Livan Navarro that was held in Orlando, Florida. Suspicious betting patterns on the bout lasting over 5.5 rounds were reported to the AGCO by two registered independent integrity monitors and detected in Ontario by a registered igaming operator. Media reports also alleged that Tellez’s Manager placed $110,000 on the match lasting longer than 5.5 rounds at a Florida casino. The bout ended with Tellez knocking out Navarro in the 10th round.
Following an intensive review that included outreach to the WBA, Ontario-registered gaming operators, independent integrity monitors, and regulators in other jurisdictions, the AGCO has concluded that bets related to WBA events do not currently meet the Registrar’s Standards for Internet Gaming.
The AGCO requires all Ontario-registered gaming operators to ensure the sport betting products they offer are on events that are effectively supervised by a sport governing body. At a minimum, the sport governing body must have and enforce codes of conduct that prohibit betting by insiders.
Registered gaming operators were unable to demonstrate to the AGCO that the WBA prohibits betting from insiders, which could include an athlete’s coaches, managers, handlers, athletic trainers, medical professionals, or others with access to non-public information. Further, registered gaming operators were unable to demonstrate that the WBA took any action to investigate or enforce the allegations of potential match-fixing and insider wagering.
The AGCO has indicated to registered operators that in order for WBA betting products to be reinstated in Ontario, operators must demonstrate that the WBA effectively supervises its events, thus bringing them into compliance with the Registrar’s Standards. In December 2022, the AGCO required gaming operators to stop offering bets on UFC events for similar issues related to insider betting safeguards. Within a month, UFC amended its policies and implemented new protocols that allowed the AGCO to reinstate betting on UFC events in the province.
“Ontarians who wish to bet on sporting events need to be confident that those events are fairly run, and that clear integrity safeguards are in place and enforced by an effective sport governing body. Knowing the popularity of boxing in Ontario, we look forward to reinstating betting on WBA events once appropriate safeguards against possible match-fixing and insider betting have been confirmed,” Dr. Karin Schnarr, Registrar and CEO of AGCO, said.
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