Incidences of non-compliant marketing in Ontario trended downwards in the first six months of this year, according to Rightlander research released to iGB Affiliate.
The marketing compliance solutions provider found 96,111 breaches of advertising rules in the Canadian province in the period from January to June 2024.
This represented a 61% decrease on the total 245,106 examples of non-compliant marketing content detected in the preceding period from July to December 2023. It was also the lowest six-monthly total since Rightlander started tracking activity in July 2022, shortly following the launch of the regulated online sports betting market on 4 April 2022.
Rightlander said the total for H124, although still high, demonstrated the effectiveness of “ongoing monitoring and of advertised content and proactive action taken by key stakeholders” in bringing down the number of infractions and contributing to better protection for consumers.
It also curtailed the surge in infractions that occurred after the first licences were issued in April 2022, with 110,451 detected from July to December 2022, rising to 120,844 from January to June 2023 and peaking at 245,106 in July to December 2023.
Rightlander split its analysis into four six-month periods to capture the impact of the regulatory implementation. This included a ban on affiliates advertising any inducements, bonuses or credits to gamble with Ontario-licensed operators.
A grace period to enable previously grey market operators to obtain licences and transition within the regulated system ended on 31 October 2022, and there are now over 30 licensed websites available in the province.
Rightlander however said in its report that the end of this period drove a significant increase in incidences of unlicensed brands being advertised to Ontario players.
The presence of offshore brands in Ontario peaked in the second half of 2023, when Rightlander detected 129,134 appearances of unlicensed operators in marketing collateral.
Bonus-related advertising in breach of strict rules that these could only be promoted on licensed operators’ websites, also peaked at 92,983 cases from July to December 2023.
Bonus promotions were the most prevalent of the four categories of breach tracked by Rightlander over the two-year assesment period, accounting for 255,22 infractions, narrowly ahead of unlicensed operator-related issues with 243,572.
The third most common type of infraction was the omission of compulsory 19+ messaging from licensed operators’ advertising across websites, search and social channels accessible to Ontario citizens, accounting for 65,609 incidences.
The least prevalent of the four types of breach tracked by Rightlander was responsible gambling messaging being either missing, incomplete or incorrect in 14,252 cases of advertising to Ontario residents.