Canada Sports Betting Ads: Changes and Regulations Review

  • 2 weeks ago
Transcript
00:00All right, let's talk about sports advertising for sports wagering in Canada.
00:08We've seen a little bit of a drop off here coming and we know that there's more restrictions
00:11in Canada than they are in the U.S.
00:14Yeah, so this is something I was watching just before coming on here and then it wrapped
00:17up just in time so I wasn't late for you, Craig.
00:19I would never be late for you, but you know, there's going to be another one tomorrow.
00:24Today was just kind of hearing witnesses.
00:25There were two hearings last week where they talked about it.
00:28Clause is going to be interesting because it's the commission that's going to kind of
00:31be tweaking it with amendments and considering clause by clause and probably voting it for
00:36or against to get out of the committee.
00:38So that'll be an interesting meeting tomorrow night.
00:41But yeah, it's I mean, Ontario has pretty strict, you know, advertising rules and that's
00:48been shown through fines.
00:50I mean, when it first launched in 2022, there were quite a few fines against operators,
00:55including, you know, BetMGM and PointsBet and the like for TV ads, ads at transit stations,
01:03billboards that, you know, offered promotions or showed promotions.
01:07But in Ontario, you need to opt into ads.
01:11So you can't just get those promos out in the public so that, you know, that's one of
01:15them.
01:16They amended their laws or regulations to prohibit using athletes in advertising except
01:23for responsible gaming ads.
01:25So there's those things.
01:26But then the national parliament introduced a bill last year that this is the one they're
01:31talking about to create a national framework for advertising because a lot of people have
01:37been fed up with how many ads have come through.
01:41And it's a lot of the same things we've seen in Ontario.
01:44Some of the same things we've seen here in Ohio and Illinois, you know, prohibiting the
01:48use of free bats and, again, not using athletes, not advertising in places where kids or people
01:56under 21 are, things like that.
01:59And, you know, there's a lot of pushback from the industry, of course.
02:03But they're also saying, you know, we don't need a national framework.
02:06You just need a strong place like Ontario and the rest of the provinces will kind of
02:12be cascaded through that because operators aren't going to make different ads for different
02:16places.
02:18And then the other thing is, you know, you've seen a lot of witnesses say, listen, there
02:23was a huge amount of ads because it was a new industry.
02:26But it wasn't that many.
02:27It wasn't in the top 20 advertisers.
02:29You know, it's starting to fall off.
02:31There's a broadcaster last week who was like, you know what?
02:36Our channels are saying the demand for this time is already waning.
02:41We don't need to go too crazy on this.
02:43So it's going to be interesting to see what happens tomorrow.
02:48One thing I took away from it, which was funny, it makes you think, because, yeah, of course
02:51we notice all the sports betting ads when we're watching games and whatever.
02:55But you know, maybe take away how many advertisements there are for pickup trucks and then a month
03:02later implement them and see if you've taken big notice of them and say, whoa, that's a
03:07lot of pickup ads and see where it goes from there.
03:09So again, this is going to be an interesting meeting tomorrow where the parliamentarians
03:14are going to go clause by clause to check in to see what happens.
03:18Again, Canada has been a very interesting place for the advertising of sports betting.
03:25This framework, they say they want to kind of compare it or make it similar to what they
03:29have in tobacco advertising restrictions and regulations, which are very, very tight and
03:35you don't see a ton of tobacco advertisements.
03:37So again, just a really interesting thing.
03:39We'll talk about this meeting or the clause by clause thing next week, I'm sure, when
03:42I'm on.
03:43Thanks for watching.
03:44Bye.
03:45Bye.
03:46Bye.

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