Looking for news covering Ontario casino crime capers? Or are you interested in seeing how casino operators make bold moves to gain market share? (Image by Mohamed Hassan from Pixabay)
Fresh off the press today in Canada there are two news stories floating around that both point to the provincial casino and sports betting arena in Ontario.
There is a scandal on the news pages of a popular Toronto news outlet (who doesn’t love a scandal?).
Plus Playtech’s partner in crime, sorry I couldn’t help myself! Let’s rephrase. Plus, Playtech’s partner in Ontario has expanded after purchasing 100% of shares worth $0.55 each adding a marketing company to its many other tentacles in the business.
Let’s save the best till last (if you are one for crime, drama, and scandal that is) and begin with the acquisition of Slapshot Media by Playtech partner NorthStar.
NorthStar Adds Well-known Canadian Marketing Firm to its Business!
Most iGaming partnership news centres around horizontal acquisitions by buying another company to expand its current offerings.
For example, Playtech invested in NorthStar this year acquiring a portion of the company thus expanding its reach into the Ontario casino and betting zone. A casino company, investing in a casino company. Makes perfect sense, right?
However, NorthStar has expanded with vertical integration bringing a marketing company into its business estate. Of course, there is rhyme and reason behind this bold move. The key to this acquisition is the onboarding of a Canadian specialist in gambling entertainment marketing, which is exactly what Slapshot Media is all about. Moreover, both firms are born and bred Canadian businesses and thus understand the market well.
When you are spending $1.8m to buy another firm, there has to be a strategy behind it (unless you are Elon Musk of course who just buys Twitter because he can), and NorthStar’s purchase of Slapshot Media’s shares makes perfect sense.
Watch out Ontario competitors! Toronto-based NorthStar now has a powerful marketing agency onboard. For a full list of competitors, check out our Canadian casino page for a full list to find a real-money online casino in Canada – some not under AGCO licensing also accept crypto, which AGCO casinos cannot offer at this time.
OPP Looks to be Falsly Excusing Unsuspecting High Roller of Suspicious Bets
Imagine choosing local casinos to spend your hard-earned cash only to have them investigate you and spread your name all over the news when all you tried to do was have a good time. That’s what appears to have happened to Branavan Kanapathipillai.
The OPP Investigation and Enforcement Bureau, part of Canada’s Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO) regulatory organisation, is in the process of investigating several operators for accepting over C$4 million in bets from a high roller. According to the OPP, the claim is that there may have been a serious breach of the Registrar’s Standards.
However, in an email directly from Mr Kanapathipillai’s attorney, he begs to differ and has taken the battle head-on by hiring a legal firm to correct the OPP’s misjudgement. According to reports circulating in other media, his flush spending at Ontario casinos dates to before the provincial iGaming and sports betting market came online. And after I investigated media sources, such as CTV suspicious casino buy-ins report further, I the case relates to land-based casinos in the province.
Correction from original story: Branavan Kanapathipillai has said he is innocent and will correct the matter. He also said that rumours that he has fled the country are also inaccurate. Also, there are still no official charges brought forward against him or the operators. It looks like a waste of OPPs resources and could possibly end up with Branavan Kanapathipillai reversing the situation by suing the OPP not keeping the investigation under wraps.
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