Metrolinx pursued a potential commercial naming rights arrangement last year, involving Jackpot City, an online casino brand, and Toronto’s Exhibition GO station, but the proposal was subsequently quashed, CBC News has learned.
The provincial transit agency has sought opportunities in recent years to bring in revenue through commercial naming rights, rebranding two Greater Toronto Area stations in this manner.
Yet a proposal for a similar arrangement involving the casino brand and Exhibition station was halted at the ministerial level last year, two sources with knowledge of the file told CBC News.
Asked for comment on the unrealized deal, Metrolinx did not deny that sequence of events had occurred.
“Before any partnership is considered, Metrolinx conducts a thorough review and assessment of the business. A careful due diligence process is always conducted before a partnership is agreed to,” the transit agency said in an emailed statement.
“We regularly work with partners across all sectors, and we 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 sounded 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 government and agency advertising policies.”
Neither commented on why the proposal did not move forward. Jackpot City has not responded to questions sent by CBC News.
Jackpot City is one of dozens of licensed operators vying for business in Ontario’s regulated market for online gambling, one of the largest in North America, using sometimes splashy advertising techniques to do so.
Less than three years after the market’s launch, Ontarians are collectively placing billions of dollars in wagers each quarter.
Decision to pass ‘encouraging’: Liberal MPP
Veteran Liberal MPP John Fraser saw it as “good news” that the naming proposal did not go through.
“It’s encouraging to me that it didn’t happen,” said Fraser, who has been critical of the wide promotion of gambling that accompanied the rise of more liberalized gambling in Ontario.
Fraser speculated that the term of a deal for naming rights could have influenced thinking around whether to move forward.
“You’re not going to change the name of a stop every five years,” he said.
That seems to be the case with two GO stations that have been rebranded in recent years: Deals struck for the Durham College Oshawa GO station in 2022 and the Brampton Innovation District GO station in 2023 each span a period of 10 years.
A push for market share
Ontario launched its regulated online gambling market in April 2022, leading to a burst of advertising amid an intensive 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 gamblers in the province to play with people outside Canada. Online gaming companies say the move would bring more Ontario gamblers into 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 sporting franchises — including the Toronto Rock — and it has provided support to the TD Salsa in Toronto Festival.
Michael Naraine, an associate professor in sport management at Brock University in St. Catharines, Ont., assesses that Jackpot City’s advertising to date has not seemingly invested in the kind of high-wattage promotional campaigns that some of its competing peers have done — such as paying for athletes to promote their services, a tactic that has since been banned.
It could be that the brand has not invested enough to get the level of clout in the market that it desires, he said.
That a gambling brand would have interest in having its name displayed at a key transit hub like the Exhibition GO station is not a surprise to observers.
Naraine said the Exhibition station sits in close proximity to BMO Field and Coca-Cola Coliseum, both of which are 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, all flock to these venues when games are taking place.
BMO Field will also be part of the Toronto-hosted events of FIFA 2026.
With all of this in mind, Naraine said it raises the question of what Metrolinx is “valuing that asset at,” when it comes to naming rights for the Exhibition station.
Ontario Senator Marty Deacon — the architect of a bill aimed at setting a framework for the advertising of sports betting in Canada — likewise sees why gambling brands “would want to target” the Exhibition station, as they fight for market share in a highly competitive space.
Her legislation, currently stalled with the recent prorogation of Parliament, does not specifically address the issue of ads appearing on public infrastructure.
“It’s a bit out of the lane of the bill,” said Deacon, who noted that advertising a casino brand in this manner would provide it exposure to anyone transiting through that station and that would include those vulnerable to problem gambling.