Offshore Sportsbook Bodog Exits Manitoba after Uncontested Court Order
Bodog is bowing out of Manitoba.
The ". eu" domain for the overseas sports wagering and gambling establishment betting site now notes the province as one of three in Canada from which it does decline players.
The other two provinces are Quebec and Nova Scotia, the latter of which was just limited by Bodog last September.
Bodog's current addition of Manitoba to its "restricted regions" follows a court in the province just recently ordering the business behind the Antigua and Barbuda-based online betting site to stop operating in such a way that is available to residents, and to cease advertising to them as well.
Bodog says it is no longer accepting players from Manitoba, which follows a court in the province generally informing the offshore sportsbook to knock it off. pic.twitter.com/PV2FvhyD49
The injunction against Bodog in Manitoba was effectively sought by the province's lotto and video gaming corporation, on behalf of the Canadian Lottery Coalition (CLC). The advocacy group's members are government-owned lottery games from provinces throughout Canada, minus Alberta and Ontario.
Getting an injunction against Bodog, which has actually long been accessible and prominent to Canadian bettors, and the operator stating it will restrict gain access to in action to the court order, is a win for those lottos.
It's also comparable to what has occurred in the U.S., where many states have recently handled to oust overseas operator Bovada from their yards.
Lotto Six-Forty-Enough
Canada's so-called "grey market" for online betting (in which business might be controlled abroad or outside a province, however not by the province itself) has long taken on government-owned entities like Manitoba Liquor and Lotteries Corp.'s PlayNow website. That site is the only authorized one in the province.
However, the CLC and its members have actually been working to raise awareness of and pursue unregulated operators, including by stepping in with concerns in a court recommendation in Ontario relating to shared iGaming liquidity.
It was throughout the hearing for that reference that the union's legal representatives were asked if an overseas operator had ever been taken to court in Canada. This was apparently not the case up until the Bodog case in Manitoba.
Lacking tones of 'grey'
The grey market is now getting squeezed like never before in Canada.
While Alberta is moving towards something similar, Ontario is the only province in Canada that licenses private-sector operators of online sportsbooks and gambling establishments to take bets from its homeowners.
A few of those operators were formerly "grey" entities before provided the opportunity to shift into Ontario's brand-new, regulated iGaming market. That has permitted Ontario to move more than 80% of all online betting in the province onto locally managed apps and websites.
Bodog, though, stays unregulated by Canada's most populous province. This recently led to the operator being singled out by the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario as a bookmaker that media companies should stop promoting.
Required to (obedience) school
Meanwhile, the non-Alberta and non-Ontario lotteries are pursuing unregulated operators in their own method, such as with the Manitoba court injunction. In Manitoba, the union had alleged Bodog was running unlawfully in the province.
The injunction that was consequently released by Court of King's Bench Judge Jeffrey Harris on May 26 also needs Bodog to put in place "geo-blocking technology" on its.eu website (the one where users can wager real cash) to stop Manitobans from accessing its services and products.
No orders were released particularly for Bodog's ". net" website (and the judge's factors have not yet been launched), which states it is for "complimentary play" and "amusement functions only."
However, both the operator's. eu and.net websites were named by the judge in the order as having no right to use online Manitoba sports betting or gambling establishment video games in the province. Bodog did not show up to protect itself in the Manitoba court.