Betway secures approval for Ontario licence
The Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO) confirmed that Betway’s licence had been issued yesterday (Tuesday) and would expire in two years’ time, on 18 April 2024.
The licence covers Betway.ca and various related dedicated domain names for sports, esports, virtual sports, casino, live casino and more.
According to the AGCO, Betway represented the 30th operator licence award since the regulated market opened, with the likes of Unibet, theScore, BetRivers, 888, PointsBet, LeoVegas, Bwin, Bet365, FanDuel, BetMGM and Caesars having secured licences on launch day, 4 April.
Most of the licences will run for 12 months, with only 10 of them running for two years.
According to Morgan Stanley analysts, Betway accounted for the highest percentage of igaming and sports betting smartphone app downloads in Ontario on a month-by-month basis for the whole of last year, followed by Bet365 in second place. As recently as February 2022, Betway represented one-third of all gambling app downloads in Ontario.
The first two weeks of data following the market launch in the province indicated that Betway still accounted for five per cent of all such app downloads in April, even before securing a licence. Over the same period, Morgan Stanley said that theScore had swallowed up half of all igaming and sports betting app downloads in Ontario, followed by Bet365 on 36%.
The launch of Ontario’s regulated market followed almost three years of work after the provincial government revealed plans to end the lottery’s online gambling monopoly in April 2019.
The government introduced legislation to allow for a licensing regime back in 2020, and final standards for online betting and gaming were published last September.
North America was Betway parent company Super Group’s biggest market in 2021, generating €593.7m in revenue to represent 45% of turnover.
Last week, Super Group reported a year-on-year increase in revenue and net profit for its 2021 financial year, despite the impact of new regulations in certain European markets.