Brent Scrimshaw, chief executive officer of Canadian lottery games operator Atlantic Lottery Corporation, has accused online gaming company Bet365 of advertising at a Canadian Football League gridiron match despite being unable to operate in the country.
According to CBC news, Scrimshaw appeared before the Crown corporations committee of the New Brunswick Legislature on Tuesday.
At the hearing, he said that Bet365 was one of the advertisers during the recent match between Montreal Alouettes and Hamilton Tigercats and argued that Bet365 was taking business away from his own corporation without returning profits to Canadian taxpayers.
Scrimshaw said that the Atlantic Lottery lost an estimated $64 million (€48 million) to online gambling websites like Bet365 last year.
“The signs of one of those operators was painted on the field and displayed on the sidelines, and marketing teams worked the crowd,” he said.
“So, unlike Atlantic Lottery, these offshore, unregulated and illegal sites do not operate with responsible gaming as part of their DNA. They do not have a stake in the well-being of Atlantic Canadians.”
Hamilton Tigercats is listed as a partner on the Bet365 website.
When contacted by iGaming Business, Bet365 said it had no comment to make.
