Egaming goes live in Manitoba
BCLC-powered PlayNow.com launches in province, offering wide range of games to Manitobans.
The province of Manitoba has launched its online gambling site, offering residents access to sports betting, casino games and poker.
Manitoba first announced its plans to offer regulated online gambling in April 2012 when it revealed it had partnered with the British Columbia Lottery Corporation (BCLC), which has designed and developed its new egaming site in conjunction with existing software and gaming platform supplier OpenBet.
BCLC has operated online lottery games in British Columbia since 2004 with Manitoba Liquor and Lotteries identifying BCLC’s PlayNow.com site as the best business model for regulated online gambling in its own province.
Manitoba’s site features many of the same elements as British Columbia’s with similar games, responsible gambling and player protection tools and a shared poker network.
In 2010, BCLC began offering online casino games to players and in 2011, together with Loto-Quebec, began offering peer-to-peer poker on a shared network. Last year, PlayNow.com generated CA$66m in revenue in British Columbia and posted 53% growth.
The launch represents the latest Canadian province to offer some form of online gambling. August 2012 saw Quebec join the Atlantic Lottery Corporation (ALC) and the BCLC as the third province to sell lottery tickets online.