Hiring Spree Underway In Canadian Sports Betting Industry

• The advent of regulated Canadian sports betting is leading to an explosion of employment opportunities
• Job openings are available in finance, security, business, marketing, content creation, and game development
• Such is the demand for talented personnel that experience in the gambling industry is not considered vital

Canadian sports betting is about to take the country by storm. And because of that, opportunities for employment in the Canadian sports betting industry are opening up everywhere.

Anyone working in Canadian sports media will tell you now is not the time to consider that line of work. But for those seeking a career in the sports industry, the doors to employment in sports betting are swinging wide open.

Job openings are available in such areas as finance, security, business, marketing, content creation, and game development.

Canada Sports Betting Sees Hiring Explosion

The Canadian government legalized single-game sports betting across the country in August. Since that time, online sports wagering has launched in Ontario, British Columbia, Quebec, Alberta, Manitoba, and across the Atlantic provinces. Saskatchewan is set to launch in January of 2022.

Thus far, all of the operations in action are government-run entities overseen by provincial lottery corporations. Soon though, privately-run online sports betting sites will be joining the Canada sports betting market and entering the battle for the Canadian sports betting dollar.

To do so, they’ll need staff to make it happen. And all of the top betting sites are currently in hiring mode as they prepare for a launch that is anticipated to be happening either late this year or early in 2022.

TheScore Bet, a major Canadian-based player in the online sports betting industry, is expecting to hire as many as 50 new employees. “We’ve hired 214 people across North America, including 137 in Canada since the start of 2021,”Benjie Levy, theScore’s president and chief operating officer, told the Toronto Star. “Nearly 40 per cent of our workforce in Canada is in high-tech jobs.”

“We’re building our sports betting platform, working on new iterations of our media app and our back-end systems. On the editorial side, we love that we can hire fresh, just out of (journalism) school reporters.”

Plenty of Employment Options In Canadian Sports Betting

PointsBet, an Australian-based sportsbook that has aggressively and successfully made inroads into the USA market since it went live in 2018, is preparing for a Canadian arrival. The company has hired 13 employees to run its Canadian operation. These include CEO Scott VanderWel. He was formerly Senior Vice-President of Rogers Communication.

Australian-listed Pointsbet $PBH has launched iGaming in New Jersey and announced the appointment of Scott Vanderwel as CEO of Pointsbet Canada. Across NJ, Pennsylvanie, Michigan and West Virginia, iGaming revenues reached circa US$900 million in the June quarter.

— Waterhouse VC (@WaterhouseVC) July 23, 2021

FanDuel also reached into the Rogers executive pool. They hired Dale Hooper, formerly the chief brand officer for Rogers, to be their FanDuel Canada general manager. Hooper most recently worked in the cannabis industry which, like sports betting, is an operation that is stringently regulated by the government.

The Kindred Group, operators of UniBet, have hired Amanda Brewer from the Canadian Gaming Association to serve as manager of their Canadian operations.

NorthStar Gaming, which intends to operate in the regulated Ontario online gaming market with a made-in-Ontario product for casino and sports betting, hired Michael Moskowitz, former Chairman and CEO of Panasonic North America. He will join the company as Chief Executive Officer.

NorthStar Gaming has also entered into a landmark omnichannel advertising and marketing services arrangement with Torstar Corporation. The company currently lists nine job openings on its website.

Online Sportsbooks Coming to Ontario Soon

Ontario is anticipating a launch of privately-run sportsbooks perhaps by late 2021 and most certainly early into 2022. Thus far, Ontario is the only Canadian provincial government that appears to be fully embracing the concept of an open market when it comes to sports betting.

With a population of 14 million, basically making it the same size as American sports betting hotbed New Jersey, online sports betting sites are viewing Ontario sports betting as a potential gold mine.

Along with theScore Bet and PointsBet, there are several major American-based sports betting giants that are casting an excited glance in the direction of the lucrative Ontario marketplace. Among them are DraftKings Canada, FanDuel Canada, BetMGM Canada, Caesars Sportsbook Canada, and BetRivers Canada.

Marc-Andre Fleury with highway robbery. 😱 https://t.co/TZlHju0VOc

— theScore Bet (@theScoreBet) November 18, 2021

Both DraftKings and FanDuel already have an Ontario presence through their daily fantasy sports operations. Likewise, Caesars has operated the casino in Windsor, Ontario for decades.

American gambling giant Penn National Gaming has partnered with theScoreBet in Canada. They’re hoping to leverage that company’s presence through its 4 million mobile sports news app users. It’s the same manner through which they’ve paired with Barstool Sports in the USA.