Written by: Steve McAllister
Presented in partnership with: 
 

The people with any kind of skin in the game when it comes to the Canadian sports betting and igaming community almost immediately bring up the skill, savvy and spirit of innovation with the technology sector here when asked to identify a strong suit of the industry. The country’s tech talent, spread out coast-to-coast-to coast from New Brunswick to Montreal, the Toronto/Waterloo and Vancouver also earns plaudits across the global gambling world.

The Summer of ‘23 has shone a very bright LED light on that tech excellence, beginning with the migration of theScore’s platform – with participation from its Toronto-based tech team - onto Barstool Sports. It’s back to the drawing board for theScore’s techies with ESPN Bets thanks to the Worldwide Leader’s recent partnership with Penn, but that’s another story for another newsletter (and Betr founder Joey Levy - just named to Sports Business Journal’s New Voices Under 30 - did his own discourse into the ESPN-Penn-Barstool blockbuster in a recent note to his employees.

Then it was the engineers and other tech experts at bet365 and Woodbine Entertainment working together to allow bet365 to offer pari-mutuel racing odds in time for last month’s King’s Plate thoroughbred race. 

Late last month, Gaming News Canada was tipped off about the latest layer to the exclusive relationship between FanDuel Canada and TSN which shows up on the network’s website and mobile app.

"We're very excited to unveil this enhanced betting feature with TSN,” Conor Murray, FanDuel’s marketing guru, told Gaming News Canada in a statement. “On TSN.ca, fans can now view FanDuel's latest odds and make a bet with one click. 

“This feature solidifies the unique FanDuel-TSN partnership and is an innovation that we are all very proud of."

FanDuel’s Canadian business isn’t alone in finding new ways for customer acquisition. Its American colleagues let it be known last week that, in a partnership with YouTube, new and existing customers will receive a $100 discount off an NFL Sunday Ticket subscription by placing a $5 bet between now and Sept. 18

While Gaming News Canada sought comment from both FanDuel and TSN on the new layer to their partnership, it also was alerted that Rivalry had its own bit of innovation coming down the pike. That was followed by the official announcement by the Toronto-based betting business that Rivalry is introducing same game parlays for esports  - a first for esports wagering.

The new POP (piece of product) to be known as Same Game Combos, will be available to Rivalry bettors in Ontario and other legal global jurisdictions for top League of Legends, Counter-Strike, and Dota 2 esports matches, with more to come.

“Finding success among Millennial and Gen Z customers means being first to introduce new sports wagering experiences at the edge of technical and product innovation where this audience lives,” said Rivalry co-founder/CEO Steven Salz, Co-Founder and CEO. “Same Game Combos brings one of the most popular bets on the board to an audience of deeply engaged esports fans while extending Rivalry’s position at the vanguard of betting entertainment.”

PandaScore will provide the data feeds for the SGPs, which Rivalry hopes will spark more customers and hold on the company’s core esports offering. Betting on esports accounted for 90 per cent of Rivalry’s business last year.

“It's important to add depth to our products and more options for our users,” said David King, Rivalry’s director of product design. “We are building for an under-30 demographic that have high expectations for the entertainment products they consume. Delivering on that level of entertainment, while creating a meaningful user experience, adds material value to the Rivalry platform.”

With the NFL regular season just around the corner, it’s expected other legally operating sportsbooks in Ontario will be promoting similar innovations over the next couple of weeks.

This story is presented in partnership with Gaming News Canada.

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