Canadian Gaming Summit 2023 Announces ‘Sports Betting’ Conference Track

The 26th edition of the Canadian Gaming Summit, the country’s premier gaming and betting event, is swiftly approaching and alongside coveted speakers, panels and a lively exhibition floor, attendees will be given the opportunity to discuss the state of sports betting in the stimulating ‘Sports Betting’ conference track.

The ‘Sports Betting’ conference track will be taking place on Wednesday, June 14th, at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, Toronto. Across the day attendees will have access to a variety of thought-provoking and informative panels on topics such as how operators’ relationship with regulatory bodies can ensure integrity in sports betting, the place of operator-led media organizations in the Canadian market and how operators can leverage content, creative and influencers to build brand equity.

Opening the conference track is the panel ‘Sports betting across Canada: navigating the patchwork of a provincial rollout’, which will analyze the impact of legalized single-event sports betting in Canada.

The panelists include Doug Hood (Project Director Gaming Modernization, AGCO), Bruce Caughill (Managing Director Canada, Rush Street Interactive) and Mike Maodus (Associate, Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP). The panel will be moderated by Salim Adatia (Vice-President, Gaming Labs International) and will comment on the variety of models provinces can adopt, such as attracting third-party operators and optimizing current offerings.

The eagerly awaited panel ‘Partner and play: collaboration between Canadian teams, leagues and sportsbooks’, will study how open major sports leagues and teams are to collaborating with operators.

The panel will include expert analysis from Owen Welsh (Associate Vice-President Sports Betting, Gaming and Innovation, Canadian Football League), Andrew Stokes (Senior Director Global Partnership Group, Maple Leaf Sports Entertainment), Aubrey Levy (Senior Vice-President Content and Marketing, TheScore) and Kuljeet Sindhar (Associate Vice-President, International Gaming and Data Ventures, NBA). The panel will examine the successful partnerships already established between teams and sportsbooks, the potential regulatory roadblocks that they can present and sports leagues yet to be explored.

The final panel of the conference track is the ‘eSports betting in Canada: investing, reducing friction and opening up a new audience’, which will explore the potentially huge untapped source of fans and revenue that is the burgeoning world of eSports.

The panel will consist of industry experts Melanie Penner (Founder, Manitoba Esports Association), Alex Igelman (Chief Executive Officer, Esports Entertainment), Daniel Sanders (Director of Marketing, Luckbox) and Alex Kozachenko (Chief Product Officer, Data Be) and will be moderated by Ng Hai (Integrity Ambassador, ESIC). The panel will discuss the number of successful Canadian eSports teams and analyze the challenges of entering the currently unrecognized market, how companies can invest in eSports teams and how operators can reduce friction between the converging worlds.

Alongside the ‘Sports Betting’ track, attendees of the summit will have the opportunity to attend specialist-led panels from a further nine tracks including leaders, landscape, iGaming and many more across the three-day event.