iGaming Ontario officially began accepting proposals Wednesday on behalf of its goal to implement a centralized self-exclusion solution in Ontario.
The regulator of all things online gambling in Ontario says it will continue to accept proposals for the responsible gambling initiative until Apr. 24.
Interested organizations can review all NRFP details and prepare their submissions through iGaming Ontario’s dedicated procurement page on MERX.
No potential release date yet, but need growing by the minute (or quarter)
With the RFP phase now underway, players in Canada’s most populous province will soon have access to a single, ubiquitous self-exclusion program.
Although there was no indication of when that might be, iGO is aware of the growing need for said resource.
During last June’s Canadian Gaming Summit, iGO executive director Martha Otton highlighted Ontario’s burgeoning market and the subsequent need for enhanced player measures.
“In addition to that requirement for operators to spend a certain percentage of their gross gaming revenue on responsible gambling messaging and education, we are working towards a centralized self-exclusion, which will be the first of its kind in the province,” Otton said.
“It will allow players to self-exclude on all products across the province. But there’s more work, certainly, that needs to be done.”
Ontario’s iGaming market has grown tremendously since then and is coming off a record-setting third quarter (Oct. 1 through Dec. 31 of 2023). In that time, the province took in $17.2 billion in total online bets and generated $658 million in revenue. Compared to Q2, that’s an increase of 21% and 22%, respectively.
While these figures do not include contributions from the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation‘s online gambling site, the provincial operator will offer players access to the centralized self-exclusion program through its online platform.
Winning bidder must satisfy three requirements
In order to be successful, prospective bidders will need to satisfy three specific requirements. According to iGO’s latest statement, the winning bidder must develop a system that:
- Integrates seamlessly with all Ontario iGaming operators’ systems (75-plus), including OLG’s online offering.
- Provides anyone 19+ with easy access to create and manage their self-exclusion profile.
- Implements Know Your Customer (KYC) identity verification, registration, renewal, and reinstatement processes that are intuitive, simple, and offer supporting information.
On top of the system criteria, iGO also laid out its six principles for centralized self-exclusion in its initial statement from last November. As such, the program must be Player Focused, Supportive, Transparent, Secure, Robust, and Viable.
In that same communication, iGO said it will work alongside the successful bidder on a multi-year program to “develop best-in-class user experiences by leveraging modern, innovative technology.”
