Until now, US online gambling operator Draft Kings, has been a notable absentee from the list of licensees taking bets in the newly regulated Ontario iGaming market. But that will change in the next few weeks as the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO) has now approved their license.
Draft Kings is now registered and as an operator and will soon receive its license for two years running until May 2024.
Other recent approvals include Skill on Net and White Hat Gaming who will both be running multiple sites in the province, and Mohegan Gaming and Entertainment who will be launching a PlayFallsView.com online brand, leveraging their Fallsview Casino resort name and built on the Kambi platform.
Unlike some of the other big names already operational in Ontario, including Bet365 and LeoVegas, Draft Kings have no previous exposure to gamblers from the grey-market era when offshore real money casinos and sportsbooks could take bets without a license. For this reason the company is not concerned about its late entry.
Chief Executive Officer, Jason Robins, told analysts in a presentation of Q1 results, “Due to the presence of gray-market operators, many of which have been present in Ontario for several years, we do not believe that the timing of our launch will have any impact on the share we are able to achieve in that province.”
For Draft Kings, expectations for Ontario over the short term remain low with forecasts of ‘minimal net revenue’ for 2023. One of the reasons for this is restrictions on pooling Daily Fantasy Sports with other jurisdictions. At present this is not allowed, which means any DFS prizes in Ontario would be significantly smaller than those across its US network.
There are now 22 website run by licensed gambling operators live in the province and many more expected before the year is out. iGaming Ontario have not published any revenue numbers for the first month but we will publish them on our Canadian Gambling News pages as soon as they do.
Want to gamble legally in the province. Check out list of the latest Ontario Online Casinos.
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