Metrolinx pursued a potential commercial naming rights deal last year involving Jackpot City, an online casino brand, and Toronto’s Exhibition GO station, but the proposal was later nixed, CBC News has learned.
The provincial transit agency has sought opportunities in recent years to generate revenue through commercial naming rights, renaming two Greater Toronto Area stations in this way.
However, a proposal for a similar deal involving the casino brand and the exhibition station was suspended at the ministerial level last year, two sources with knowledge of the file told CBC News.
When asked for comment on the failed deal, Metrolinx did not deny that the sequence of events had occurred.
“Before considering any partnership, Metrolinx conducts a thorough review and evaluation of the business. A careful due diligence process is always conducted before agreeing to a partnership,” the transportation agency said in an emailed statement.
“We regularly work with partners across all sectors and will continue to explore ways we can work with third parties to improve and expand our services.”
A spokesperson for Ontario Transportation Minister Prabmeet Sarkaria struck a similar note, telling CBC News via email that “when a station naming opportunity is proposed, the government and Metrolinx evaluate it to ensure it meets all the advertising policies of the government and agencies”.
Neither commented why the proposal did not advance. Jackpot City has not responded to questions sent by CBC News.
Jackpot City is one of dozens of licensed operators competing for business in Ontario’s regulated online gambling market, one of the largest in North America, sometimes using flashy advertising techniques to do so.
Less than three years after the market launched, Ontarians are collectively placing billions of dollars in bets each quarter.
The decision to approve it is “encouraging”: the liberal MPP
Veteran Liberal MP John Fraser saw it as “good news” that the name proposal was not approved.
“It’s encouraging to me that this hasn’t happened,” said Fraser, who has criticized the widespread promotion of gambling that accompanied the rise of more liberalized gambling in Ontario.
Fraser speculated that the timing of a naming rights deal might have influenced the idea of moving forward.
“You’re not going to change the name of a stop every five years,” he said.
That appears to be the case with two GO stations that have changed names in recent years: The deals closed for the Durham College Oshawa GO station in 2022 and the Brampton Innovation District GO station in 2023 each span a 10-year period.
A boost for market share
Ontario launched its regulated online gambling market in April 2022, prompting an explosion of publicity amid an intense push by companies to gain market share.
Premier Doug Ford’s government is seeking a precedent-setting court ruling on whether Ontario’s regulated online gaming sites can legally allow players from the province to play with people outside of Canada. Online gaming companies say the move would attract more Ontario players to provincially regulated gaming sites, rather than international ones, adding more revenue to the province. CBC’s Mike Crawley has more.
Jackpot City has promoted its services with traditional advertising, but has also signed partnerships with sports franchises, including the Toronto Rock, and has provided support for the TD Salsa in Toronto Festival.
Michael Naraine, associate professor of sports management at Brock University in St. Catharines, Ont., assesses that Jackpot City advertising to date apparently hasn’t invested in the kind of high-voltage promotional campaigns that some of its peer competitors have done. , such as paying athletes to promote their services, a tactic that has since been banned.
It could be that the brand hasn’t invested enough to achieve the level of market influence it wants, he said.
That a gaming brand would be interested in having its name displayed at a key transit hub like the Exhibition GO station is no surprise to observers.
Naraine said the display station is in close proximity to BMO Field and Coca-Cola Coliseum, both key sports properties in Toronto. Fans of the CFL’s Argonauts, the PWHL’s Sceptres, Major League Soccer’s Toronto FC and soon, the WNBA’s Toronto Tempo, flock to these venues when games are held.
BMO Field will also be part of the FIFA 2026 events hosted in Toronto.
With all of this in mind, Naraine said it raises the question of what Metrolinx is “valuing that asset at” when it comes to the naming rights to the Exhibition station.
Ontario Senator Marty Deacon, architect of a bill aimed at establishing a framework for sports betting advertising in Canada, also sees why gambling brands “would want to target” the display station, as they fight by market share in a highly competitive space. .
Its legislation, currently stalled due to Parliament’s recent prorogation, does not specifically address the issue of advertising appearing on public infrastructure.
“It’s a little outside the scope of the bill,” said Deacon, who noted that advertising a casino brand in this way would give exposure to anyone passing through that station and that would include those vulnerable to problem gambling.
