Benjie Cherniak’s Hot Takes on the Latest Gambling Industry Developments and Innovations

For three and a half years now, your humble host has listened and learned from many, many voices across all sectors of the gambling industry. And some of those experts prompt us to go all E.F. Hutton when they speak.

   • When E.F. Hutton talks, people listen...  

One of those very learned people is Benjie Cherniak, who returned to the Gaming News Canada Show after a busy couple of months piling up the frequent flier miles, including stops for NEXT.io conferences in New York and Malta. The native Montrealer, an investor and advisor to a cornucopia of companies in the gaming space (including his investment in the proprietors of GNC) was appointed to the board of directors of Kambi Group last month.

We asked Cherniak to chime in on several topics in the industry these days, including the happenings around mergers and acquisitions (to wit: DraftKings acquiring Jackpocket and Sports IQ Analytics and rumblings it will also bring Simplebet into the DK family; FanDuel’s acquisition of BeyondPlay; and the sale of Waterloo-based Quarter4 to FairPlay Sports Media). He also provided some sundry thoughts on the discussions and debates around the still-newish regulated gambling marketplaces in Ontario, and states across the U.S. of A., the creation of media and marketing content for sportsbook and igaming operators, and the ongoing innovation happening in the business.

Cherniak also had some advice for first-timers attending the Canadian Gaming Summit, which gets underway today at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre.