Playtech’s Northstar Acquires Marketing Firm Specialising in Canadian Gambling Entertainment

Tune in for the full story covering the made-in-Ontario Northstar Bets acquisition of an iGaming and sports betting marketing specialist! (Photo by Ian Schneider on Unsplash)

News fresh in off the press reporting domestic Canadian casino company NorthStar has acquired another Canadian company for its market prowess is not just a rumour.

The NorthStar brand has earned the nickname ‘Made-in-Ontario’ by some players and journalists because the brand first came online and operates out of the provincial capital city – Toronto.

Plus, as a local brand, NorthStar has been very much a part of the rise of iGaming and sports betting in the province since it opened on 4 April 2022.

With the addition of a Canadian company, it can expand on its nickname.

At a guess, the marketing strategy here is to appeal to those that are proud of home-bred brands, and it could work. Ontarians are pleased with the success of their localised online gambling entertainment industry. All you need to do is look at the numbers in the most recent stats to see that players in the province are flocking to casinos and sports books operating under the protection of local laws thanks to the AGCO licensing framework. Furthermore, the acquisition of a local iGaming specialist marketing firm has a decent chance of bolstering NorthStar’s chances of etching out a larger share of the market.

And why not? Ontario is recording record revenues with my last report covering the provincial gambling entertainment zone boasting a mammoth C$35 billion in online wagers making it the fifth-largest market of its kind in North America. A larger piece of the pie is certainly doable despite the competition.

Why Has NorthStar Purchased SlapShot Media?

Considering the cost of marketing these days, it makes sense to have an in-house marketing team for some companies. On top of this, by hiring a local company that understands the culture of Canadians, the deal feels like a no-brainer.

With that being said, not everyone believes in the in-house marketing approach through. From the ‘inside-out’ perspective a marketing company can give your company critical feedback. I.e., it’s easy to see your company as great, while an outside marketing team can become your biggest critic because they want your company to grow, so the marketing company can expand its activities with your company and increase a billing.

However, with SlapShot’s current client base as well as its expertise in iGaming and sports betting markets, the company could also become another revenue stream, while also saving NorthStar on huge marketing bills. One of SlapShot’s clients, for example, is Abenaki Council of Wolinak, which operates Spreads.ca.

Verdict: I like the idea of hiring a local company that understands the local market. It can highlight the ‘made-in-Ontario’ homebred brand image with advertising. The outside-in look at the brand mentioned above is something I am sure SlapShio is aware of, and in-house companies always have a solution for this scenario, so no problems here either.

The Playtech Connection with NorthStar

Playtech recently made a C$12.3m investment in its parent company NorthStar Bets and has just announced it will acquire Slapshot Media for C$1.8 million. The deal brings together two homebred firms looking to crush the Ontario iGaming and sports betting scene.

Playtech invested in NorthStar in February this year. However, the connection runs deeper than the recent investment plan.

Nine months prior to this, Playtech launched its multichannel IMS platform tech on the northstarbets.ca Ontario platform to supply sports, live casino games, and online slots. The deal also included the provision of online poker later down the line, which is now in place.

For Playtech, this is a backdoor into a growing market, while also sticking to the London Stock Exchange company’s strategy. That focus is on the B2B supply of its sports, poker and casino platforms (an aggregator of sorts) and casino games, which includes a series of online slots, live slots, virtual table games and one of the most competitive live casino portfolios in the live dealer gaming niche.

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