IAB Canada had a strong iGaming Working Group kick-off session today with solid attendance from agencies, publishers, ad tech and operators all committed to the success of a responsible iGaming market in Ontario. Our special guest, Jeff Harris, Director, Financial Advisory Founder and Leader of Canada’s Sport Business Advisory Group at Deloitte, set the stage by sharing invaluable findings from “Bettor Perspectives”, a comprehensive online survey covering excellent stats about Canadian adults and their past and future sports-betting and gaming activities, sports fandom, and consumer-experience preferences.
With surprisingly low awareness (only 1 in 5 Canadians) know that single-event sports betting is now legal across the country, there is a clear opportunity to raise awareness. To help segment potential iGaming audiences, Jeff outlined 3 categories of players:
- ardent (9%)
- casual (33%)
- potential (58%)
Currently, Canadian iGamers are relying heavily on traditional platforms, such as TV and desktops, to follow sports. The Deloitte study showed that there is major growth potential on digital platforms with nearly 75% of fans following sports across multiple devices simultaneously. The opportunity is abundant, and the dialogue today was both positive and hopeful.
Shifting our focus across the globe, Jeff then took us through how several other markets have grappled with the iGaming vertical. Looking at various jurisdictions, a common thread is the fact that any iGaming regulation has coming into play has done so gradually with extra layers added on over time – with a particular and shared focus on the protection of youth.
Some specific market details were shared with the group demonstrating the patchwork of regulations that have emerged over time:
- In the UK, it was governed that no one under the age of 25 can be seen promoting gambling and more rules are coming to this market in in the short-term
- In Australia, oversaturation became an issue. After seeing too many ads landing in front of a younger market, eventually, additional guard rails needed to come into play
- In Spain, ads or promo are not allowed on soccer jerseys or in stadium
- In Italy, ads are banned altogether
IAB Canada, continues to pay close attention to these developments to help guide industry efforts here in a quest to support responsible advertising in this space. One thing is for sure, it is going to take the collaboration of the entire ecosystem to make this a success.
You can find this presentation and other useful tools and information in our iGaming Resource Centre.
Coming up in June, the iGaming Working Group will be joined by Eric Levy, Partner and Head of the Gaming Group at Osler who will be looking back at this vertical since launch and giving us an overview of what is going well and what are some of the challenges the industry is facing. In addition, we have also received a 50% discount for our members to the upcoming Canadian Gaming Summit.
If you would like access to these savings, or would like to be included in the iGaming discussion, please reach out to policy@Iabcanada.com.