Last August, the CFL announced a multi-year partnership with BetRegal, making it the league's official sports-gaming partner. However, the
BetRegal has applied to the
BetRegal offers CFL odds on the league's website and gives fans the chance to wager with it. BetRegal also has a partnership with the
Among the companies licensed in
Other prominent companies operating in the grey market while their
"The reality of this is it really doesn't matter if they're licensed or not at this point because they're still able to operate in the province," said
Regulators have faced plenty of criticism for the current situation. But Warren said the application process is a complicated one.
"When I was at the Canadian Gaming Summit in June, there was a panel with some executives from the AGCO and IGO (iGaming of
"They kept reiterating, 'This is a very large, complex process and it's a very thorough process to go through all of the technology that these operators have and all of their safeguards and all of their policies. This just takes time unfortunately.' They just said, 'Look be patient. Everything is in the works.'"
Warren feels the hope is the current situation will be resolved by the start of the NFL regular season in September. And with good reason, as the NFL is regarded as a top product in sports-betting circles.
"They view this as a very important time for customer acquisition," Warren said.
But something else regulators are being criticized for is not having already provided revenue figures since the
However,
"In
"We're hitting a hurdle for some reason, we're hitting a huge speed bump as far as licensing and getting revenue numbers out and nobody knows why."
"There's speculation the numbers aren't what they were projected because the grey market was already so strong in
"That's just speculation but that's kind of what I'm hearing from people. I'm hearing they're supposed to be released quarterly. We're due for a report, we're overdue."
That's not to suggest companies operating in
"These individual operators will know their own personal numbers but I am sure they are talking with each other and have a ballpark idea of how they're doing," Warren said. "So I think people within the realm have a sense of where these numbers are at.
"This is all very much a work in progress whenever you launch a new industry. It's going to take some time, it's probably going to be a full year before things are exactly the way they're going to be."
Warren wouldn't be surprised to see changes made, especially with online sportsbooks being prohibited from offering any public advertising of inducement, bonuses and credits.
"There's a lot of backlash over the strict advertising standards that are in place," he said. "That's been very hard on business for (operators) because it's really how they acquire customers.
"It's been very difficult for the operators and they're frustrated by that and we could see some changes to some of these advertising standards in the coming months."
This report by
© 2022 The Canadian Press. All rights reserved., source