Loto-Quebec’s online gaming site Espacejeux is to launch a sports betting product on March 26th, enabling players to place pool bets online on a number of sports including football, basketball and hockey.
The company said it was launching the pools betting product Mise-o-jeu online in response to the increasing popularity of online gaming in the province. It said the launch is in line with its mandate to channel gambling away from the more than 2,000 illegal gambling sites targeting Quebec residents.
“Following the example of other Canadian lottery corporations, specifically those in the Atlantic provinces and British Columbia that have been offering their products online for almost 8 years, Loto-Québec is now meeting the expectations of sports event bettors, a clientele mainly made up of men aged between 18 and 49 years who are frequent users of the web,” it said.
Registered users of Espacejeux.com will be able to place pool bets via the web, smartphones and tablets from March 26th on eight different sports. As per Canadian law, single bets are not offered and players must correctly predict the outcome of between two and eight events.
Mise-o-jeu currently generates offline sales of approximately CAD$50.0m annually with players spending on average $9.40 per bet. The rate of return to players is in the region of 60 to 67 per cent.