Sports Betting-Rich Ontario Headed for DFS-Less Start to NFL Season

Ontarians have more than 30 provincially regulated online sportsbooks awaiting their service this NFL season.

However, as the regular season begins again, locals of Canada's most populous province will still have nothing comparable for paid daily fantasy sports contests.

- Ontario sports wagerers still have no provincially managed alternatives for paid daily dream sports (DFS) contests.

- Since April 2022, significant DFS operators like DraftKings and FanDuel have actually decreased to provide paid contests in Ontario due to provincial regulations and federal law.

- A possibly game-changing court case could enable Ontario DFS gamers to compete with users outside Canada, but a decision is still pending and likely to be attracted the Supreme Court.

That DFS-less status quo has remained in location considering that April 2022, when the new Ontario sports wagering and iGaming market introduced, bringing numerous private-sector operators under provincial oversight.

Ontario's iGaming rules treat paid DFS as betting and therefore require companies that provide contests to sign up with the local regulator and pay a roughly 20% tax on revenue, as an online sportsbook or casino would.

Moreover, the province's policies need all participants to be physically located in Ontario, restricting the size of DFS contests.

These conditions, the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO) has actually acknowledged, have actually triggered iGaming operators (such as DraftKings and FanDuel) to ditch "pay-to-play" fantasy sports.

Instead, former DFS operators in Ontario use just their online sports wagering and gambling establishment products. Other DFS companies, such as PrizePicks and Underdog, have actually avoided Ontario entirely.

"Choosing whether to offer pay-to-play dream sports is a specific organization choice that rests with signed up operators," the AGCO states. "The AGCO is committed to making sure Ontarians can securely and responsibly enjoy their preferred sports wagering products, including pay-to-play dream sports offerings, in Ontario's brand-new igaming market."

All of this is an irritant to DFS fanatics in Ontario who might have chosen setting lineups to placing SGPs. While they have numerous provincially regulated options with which to do the latter, for the former, they have absolutely nothing.

Potentially huge news for Ontario-based everyday dream and poker fans: the provincial government is asking the Court of Appeal whether allowing citizens to take part in online games and wagering involving people beyond Canada is legal. https://t.co/sv2ouYlVQY pic.twitter.com/Eanx9zgAS0

For now, at least.

There is a possible landmark lawsuit that could change all of this. That case, or referral, involves the Ontario government asking the province's Court of Appeal if it would be legal to let online gamblers have fun with individuals outside of Canada.

If the court were to say yes (and the province believes it needs to), then a DFS operator might connect Ontario DFS gamers to DFS gamers in the U.S. or additional abroad. Then, it would possibly make more monetary sense to operators to again provide paid fantasy sports contests in Ontario. It would also offer for a much deeper pool of online poker gamers in the province.

"Using poker as an example, a player in Ontario would have the ability to sit down at a virtual poker table and compete with players from around the world," an executive for PokerStars and FanDuel owner Flutter Entertainment PLC stated in a Might 2024 affidavit tied to the court reference. "Similarly, if daily fantasy sports were to be used, a private in Ontario could bet and get involved in a day-to-day fantasy sports league including individuals from outside of Canada."

Simply put, Ontario sees a method for its gamers to stay regulated and safeguarded by the province while having fun with gamblers outside of Canada, who would be controlled and safeguarded by their regional systems.

Trailblazing can burn

This is particularly noteworthy because Ontario is the only province in Canada with a controlled iGaming market that allows multiple private-sector operators to take part. It is an island of private-sector competition in a sea of government-authorized monopolies.

Ontario's "plan," so to speak, is one of one in Canada, and the province now wishes to connect it to plans outside Canada. It might also connect the plan to a comparable one in Alberta that is being established, however won't introduce till next year. Ontario could eventually get in touch with other provinces too, if they are ever so likely.

"Our position is the game is two schemes engaging with each other," said Josh Hunter, an attorney for Ontario's Ministry of the Attorney General, during a hearing on the court recommendation last November.

By allowing operators to supply bigger poker games and paid DFS contests to provincial gamblers, Ontario could pull much more gamers onto its regulated iGaming sites. That is, after all, one of the primary reasons for releasing a managed iGaming market - to get bettors out of the "grey" and "black" markets and into a completely managed one.

"We think it would better protect individuals of Ontario," argued Ananthan Sinnadurai, another lawyer for the AG's workplace, throughout last November's hearing.

ETA TBD

However, a response to the provincial federal government's concern has been exceptional since the hearing last November, when the Court of Appeal judges listened to arguments concerning the "online gaming and international play" referral.

There is no indicator of when that judgment will be provided either. There's also no guarantee that if the decision were issued tomorrow (the court's site recommends it will not), DFS would unexpectedly spring back to life in Ontario.

Furthermore, it is most likely (if not particular) that whatever the Court of Appeal chooses, it will be interested the Supreme Court of Canada.

"There is a provision in the Supreme Court Act which develops a right of appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada from the Court of Appeal's choice in any recommendation question, which suggests the probability of this case ending in the Court of Appeal for Ontario is, I believe, reasonably low," stated Adam Goldenberg, a partner at McCarthy Tétrault LLP, during a panel at this year's Canadian Gaming Summit in Toronto.

The court records for Ontario's DFS/poker referral consist of a great deal of Parliamentary argument about Canadian gambling law. Here's a legal representative in 1985 explaining the reasoning for Canada's longstanding (however now gone) restriction on single-game wagering. No "amusing video games," please, we're Canadian. pic.twitter.com/PYOLuBRaCa

As the above quote recommends, this is made complex stuff.

The Court of Appeal doesn't get asked questions by the provincial federal government every day either, and even every year.

"The kind of the case is unusual," stated Danielle Bush, senior counsel at McCarthy Tétrault LLP, throughout the Canadian Gaming Summit. "I believe that we identified that the Court of Appeal in Ontario had actually just heard another referral case 17 years ago."

A lot has actually been thrown at the Court of Appeal as well.

While there is a "yes" side in the reference (the Ontario federal government and private-sector online gaming business), there is likewise a "no" side, which includes numerous government-owned lottery and video gaming corporations (albeit not the Alberta and Ontario lottery games).

These lottos are members of the so-called Canadian Lottery Coalition. And these lottos, such as the British Columbia Lottery Corp., have a bone to choose with Ontario and its licensed iGaming operators.

That is due to the fact that these lottos and their iGaming websites, such as BCLC's PlayNow, have actually government-authorized monopolies for regulated online gaming in their home provinces. Even so, they say they discover themselves completing for business against Ontario-licensed iGaming brand names that are taking bets in provinces that are certainly not Ontario.

These lottery games are concerned, as the union's executive director said in an April 2024 affidavit, that the Ontario liquidity referral "could cause the further proliferation of illegal online betting."

Bad Bodog!

These concerns were voiced throughout the DFS-related hearing before Ontario's Court of Appeal last November.

However, it's not simply in Ontario where the lottery union has been active in the courts, as the Manitoba lottery won an injunction versus offshore sportsbook Bodog in May. That decision has reportedly been sent out to the appeals judges in Ontario for the DFS-related referral, possibly providing them one more thing to think about.

That is because the concern of unregulated operators was something inquired about during Ontario's liquidity referral, and the lack of a choice against an overseas sportsbook was appropriately kept in mind at the time.

Now, there is a decision, and it might be one that the five-judge panel in Ontario is mulling over as it pertains to "online video gaming and global play."

"They have actually (the lottery games) returned now and they've stated, 'OK, we did it, and here's what the court in Manitoba said,'" Bush stated. "It is certainly tactical.