Ontario Considers LocationSmart for Tracking Online Gaming
The Canadian province of Ontario is set to launch commercial online sports betting and iGaming on April 4. An extremely important part of the process is the proper technology to track player location.
Legal sports betting in Canada is regulated on a province-by-province basis. As the most heavily populated province in the country, Ontario is also the biggest online betting market. Along with an existing government-run online gaming entity, Ontario decided to add commercial operators to the mix.
The Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario is working with iGaming Ontario as far as defining the regulatory and licensing guidelines. Part of those guidelines require commercial operators to have player location validation technology in place.
This requirement exists on the state level in the legal US market. This ensures that legal online gambling takes place within the designated state or province borders.
The industry leader for this type of tracking technology is GeoComply. The company basically has a monopoly across the online sports betting existing industry. However, competition is on the rise given the rapid expansion of legal online gaming.
One of those competitors is LocationSmart. Based in Carlsbad, California, this tech company also offers geolocation compliance services.
LocationSmart was the first company to apply these services for iGaming in Nevada and Delaware. It also provides geolocation services in New Jersey as one of the largest legal iGaming markets in the US.
Through the use of a cloud-based location platform, LocationSmart helps gaming companies comply with geographic restrictions. The company also offers products tied to online gambling transactions. Global in nature, it has a business presence in more than 200 different countries.
Company CEO and co-founder Mario Proietti put things into perspective with the following statement:
“We’ve run into GeoComply, obviously. They are very well known in the industry, they’ve really honed in on the gaming sector since their founding. We’ve focused on it as a sector among other sectors. We’re broader in terms of our market focus.”
The biggest point of difference between GeoComply and LocationSmart is accessing each company’s technology. Online sports bettors need to download the GeoComply location app in conjunction with a mobile sportsbook app.
LocationSmart can be accessed through a browser implementation. This helps to create a more seamless process for accessing online betting apps.
With an eye towards the expanding iGaming market in Canada, LocationSmart is especially tuned into the recent developments in Ontario. Previous customers in Canada include the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation.
Currently, half of the company’s customers are based in the US. However, a large push for expansion includes both the international market as well as Canada.
Written by Dave Schwab, our US Sports Betting Industry Expert. You can learn more about our author's expertise here.
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