Loto-Québec to offer online sports betting
Québec residents will be able to place sports wagers on espacejeux.com from 26 March
Residents of Québec are set to be able to gamble on sports over the internet following Loto-Québec’s announcement that it is to offer sports betting via its online arm Espacejeux.com.
Going live in time for the baseball season and National Hockey League playoffs, the site will allow Mise-o-jeu lottery players “ based on sports and statistics “ to place sports bets online from 26 March.
The Mise-o-jeu lottery is currently a land-based format, with players only able to track odds and results online. Presently, Mise-o-jeu amasses annual sales of CA$50m.
Loto-Québec has developed this new offering entirely in-house, including both the technology platform and payment processing systems. Espacejeux was first launched in 2010, and recently signed a multi-year casino games supply deal with Cryptologic.
A spokesperson for Loto-Québec told eGaming Review: “We have the staff to do [keep all operations in-house] and we thought it would be the best way to go forward and continue to sell the sports lottery at a retail level.
“[Our website] has a bigger selection of events than at the corner store. The stores offer a great selection but this is expanded online. We do not know what impact [the online sports book] will have. We are in unknown territory but we expect it to probably increase our sports lottery revenue,” they explained.
The development coincides with the ongoing progress of a bill that would allow single-event sports betting in Canada. Having just passed the third reading stage, the bill now goes into the final stages of approval before becoming law.
At present, single-game sports betting is illegal throughout North America, with the exception of Nevada.