PointsBet's Canadian dance partner

We always like to remind our audience that The Parleh is here to shine a light on the sports betting world and it's relevance to Canadians. For our growing followings on Twitter, Clubhouse and the must-read weekly newsletter, we hold ourselves to account, to connect the otherwise invisible dots and say what others are thinking.

One story We The North has been tracking is the recent NHL deal making PointsBet an official league sports betting partner. What caught our attention was that the deal also gives PointsBet the ability to integrate its content into live NHL game broadcasts across the league’s media partners, starting with NBC, which waaaaay back last summer inked their own deal with PointsBet as the official sports betting partner of NBC Sports.

It begs the question. . . if the NHL is tied to PointsBet and one of its U.S. broadcast partners is tied to PointsBet, what about its national broadcast partner in Canada?

You may be thinking this tossing of the fishing line into Lake Ontario is simply an exercise to attract new people to The Parleh, and you may be on to something.

That said, Sportsnet is no stranger to betting-related sponsorship either. It’s currently promoting Sports Interaction in its NHL broadcasts and on the Inside The Lines radio program. Beyond some syndicated Vsin content, we’ve otherwise not seen original betting content from Sportsnet, nor a face for its sports betting coverage, an area where NBC and PointsBet have already forged ahead.

What’s more, PointsBet appears to be readying itself to make some moves here in the Great White North. Is your CV up to date? PointsBet has recently begun looking for a Canadian general manager.  

Now seems like a good time to have this debate as Rogers made headlines with the recently announced $26 billion proposed acquisition of Shaw. While the telco sector junkies profess it’s all about 5G, us sports media types are thinking Sportsnet is about to gain a whack of basic cable bundle subscribers in the West, meaning it’s on the path to parity in household distribution with TSN, making it an even more tempting partner for a sportsbook looking to build a national sports betting brand.

Say what you want about the pending Canadian legislation for single-event betting and opening up a regulated market to sportsbooks. What’s guaranteed is that the oligopoly in the telco and sports broadcast world stand to gain big-time.

More to come on this story…

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