Former Rogers executive takes the PointsBet plunge

There’s something special about creating something from scratch. Just ask Scott Vanderwel.

The former senior vice-president of Rogers Communications was introduced yesterday as the chief executive officer of PointsBet Canada, and will begin his new role with the fledgling Canadian online sports betting company on August 17. Vanderwel spent almost a decade at Rogers leading digital operations and corporate strategy before leaving at the beginning of 2021 and starting his own advisory business. He’s also the current chair of the Ivey Alumni Advisory Board at Western University’s Ivey Business School.

“I’ve been looking for the opportunity to put together a great business in a great industry, and that’s what really emerged from my discussions (with PointsBet),” Vanderwel told The Parleh yesterday morning after the announcement.

A six-week courtship that included a trip to Denver to meet with PointsBet global CEO Sam Swanell, PointsBet USA CEO Johnny Aitken and other senior executives convinced Vanderwel to join Chantal Cipriano, introduced last week as the VP, legal, compliance and people, and chief commercial officer Nic Sulsky in the Canadian operation.

Vanderwel was quick to respond to being asked about his main priorities out of the proverbial gate.

“We want to make PointsBet a uniquely Canadian experience for sports fans, and there are hundreds of attributes that will go into making that successful,” he said. “We also want to be helping government and provincial regulators to make sure sports betting moves into a legal operating model that maximizes the opportunity to build a legal framework in Canada.

“It’s an incredibly young industry from a regulated standpoint, so the regulatory decisions you make can have a great impact.”

The hiring of Vanderwel, Cipriano and Sulsky reflects that Aitken was giving - as they say Down Under - good oil when he told us last month that the company’s new business would be truly made in Canada.

For more on the announcement, click here.

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