With MIXI Deal Done, It’s Full Steam Ahead for PointsBet Canada
Posted on: November 7, 2025, 10:29h.
Last updated on: November 7, 2025, 11:41h.
- PointsBet Canada gears up for Alberta market launch, in early 2026
- MIXI gets down to learning more about Canadian operation
Now that uncertainty over ownership is out of the way, it’s full steam ahead to further boost market share in a competitive Ontario market, while ramping up to market launch in Alberta, according to Points Bet Canada Head of Casino Brooke Hilton.
For months, the battle between MIXI Australia and Betr for control of Australia-based PointsBet played out publicly in the news, with offers and counteroffers bouncing back and forth.
A successful Betr bid would have meant the sale of PointsBet Canada to Hard Rock Digital.
With that much uncertainty over that long a period of time, one could understand how it wasn’t exactly an optimal environment to do one’s job at max capacity. That was a helluva distraction for employees. It was also prime reality TV-type content for those on the outside.
MIXI Takeover
In September, MIXI Australia completed its takeover bid for PointsBet, securing 66.43% of the shares in the company, wrapping up its majority holding.
For Hilton, based in Vancouver, who joined the company in October 2023, it was welcome relief. Before joining PointsBet, Hilton was Director of Business Development at Ingenuity Gaming, working in iGaming project development. Before that, she was with the British Columbia Lottery Corporation, where she worked on the Play Now casino product.
“The clarity is absolutely powerful,” she said. “It’s key for a lot of us. I don’t know if I have ever seen a more public showing of two companies going after an acquisition. That being said, nothing really changed in the interim. Our FY 26 starts in July. So, we’re in Q2, doing well against our budget.”
Digital Casino Domination in Ontario
Hilton said there’s been significant investment in the PointsBet’s tech stack to position the company for a seamless Alberta launch, and a lot more casino-first acquisitions at PointsBet Canada. Being in a market as competitive as Ontario has better prepared them for Alberta.
Operators need to bring their “A game” for Ontario, Hilton said. That focus on back-end technology is one way PointsCanada Canada can differentiate itself in a busy marketplace.
We really wanted to set up our technical foundations again, so we can incrementally add those gamification layers and do something that’s a little bit different and custom to our brand,” she said.
MIXI has many different investments in many verticals, this being the latest, so the priority for them now is to learn and grow.
“Japanese culture is very long term, very considerate, very strategic,” she added.
That’s what a market as competitive as Ontario requires. As of today, there are 50 licensed iGaming operators in the province, with 77 digital casino platforms. Digital casino, Hilton’s bailiwick, has an 84% market share for revenue.
Why online casino dominates across the country is an interesting question. PointsBet Canada is steadily building on the online casino side of the operation with approximately 1,400 games. MIXI’s involvement will just fuel that growth.
Why is Online Casino So Popular with Canadians?
Sports betting and online casino have been going through an evolution in Canada. In other regions like Asia, Australia, or the UK, live betting on something like horse racing has been much more socially acceptable and ingrained in the culture. We don’t necessarily have that in Canada, Hilton said.
It’s been very much online interaction with all of those products,” she said. “And I think sports betting, for the past five years or so, or maybe even longer, it’s been much more socially acceptable. It’s more crossing over into the realm of entertainment than it is gambling.”
“Sports books have gone through that image shift. Now that casino is becoming more kind of gamification, there’s a lot more social element. It’s going through a bit of an image shift, an evolution, in itself.”
Hilton added that online casino is similar to sportsbooks. “There’s a lot of the cross-over that we see from sports book is to live casino, so the live dealers, and then blackjack, baccarat, and roulette as well. So, a lot of games that have a perceived element of skill. There’s multiple decision points. There are interactions, perhaps with a live dealer at some point. A lot of those kind of enhance the overall experience for a player as well.”
Sportsbook and Casino Crossover
Online casino helps fill in the gaps for folks who are also sports bettors. As Hilton said, you place a bet on the Leafs, for example, you go home, have dinner, watch the game, then after the game, you find out the results of the bet, then you log out.
“It’s very transactional, one dimensional,” she said. “Whereas with casino, it’s very engaging, and it enhances that overall gaming experience. You check your [sports] bet, then maybe you play blackjack, or chat with some of the players in the room. It’s an immersive experience.”
The success in cross-selling people over to casino is where it starts to make sense, for those of us sitting back in wonderment, watching those staggering iGaming Ontario numbers every month. In September, that market did CA$8.55 billion in total cash wagers, CA$7.343 billion of which came through online casino.
PointsBet Canada is well established in Ontario, and will be jumping into Alberta on Day 1, Hilton added. PointsBet Canada’s revenue from sports betting and iGaming in FY 2025 increased 26% year over year to AU$42.9 million (CA$39 million).
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