Mohawk Council of Kahnawà:ke ends Entain relationship due to “change in the regulatory landscape” 

The Mohawk Council of Kahnawà:ke (MCK) and Mohawk Online Limited (MOL) has called time on its relationship with Entain, with the groups no longer operating the Sports Interaction online gaming platform in Canada.

In a statement released on October 30, the MCK confirmed MOL, a wholly owned subsidiary of MCK, has ended its exclusive partnership with Entain subsidiary Avid Gaming, which owns Sports Interaction. 

Sports Interaction, which was one of the first brands to receive a license from the Kahnawà:ke Gaming Commission (KGC) in the 1990s, has been operated by MOL since 2022 in Canada, outside of the province of Ontario. 

Avid Gaming, which was purchased by Entain in the same year, served as a B2B supplier to MOL.  

When the deal was announced, then-Entain CEO Jette Nygaard-Andersen heralded the combination of Sports Interaction’s “local expertise” and the London-listed operator’s “powerful platform” as a cause for optimism, but the partnership has now been axed less than three years in. 

At the time of Entain’s C$300m purchase, 50% of Avid Gaming workers in Kahnawà:ke were from the indigenous Mohawk tribe.  

The MCK’s recent statement noted that “MOL’s operation of Sports Interaction generated important revenues for the community for some time,” with The Eastern Door, the newspaper serving the Mohawk community, reporting that the figure sits somewhere around the $23m mark since 2015. 

The MOL funneled all of the online revenue amassed from operating Sports Interaction in Canada back to the Kahnawà:ke tribe, which was then used for social and economic causes. 

The MCK’s recent update also appeared to take aim at regulation in Ontario, where igaming has been legal since 2022 following the adoption of Bill C-218, for damaging the Kahnawà:ke council’s own igaming influence. 

The statement added: “The Council considers that Ontario has taken actions to actively undermine Kahnawà:ke as a legitimate gaming jurisdiction while failing to recognize Kahnawà:ke’s right to conduct, facilitate, and regulate gaming and contravenes the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.” 

When igaming was legalized in Ontario two years ago, the MCK issued a legal challenge on the basis it interfered with its own jurisdiction, but the court did not rule in the tribe’s favor.

MCK chief Cody Diabo shed further light on the reasons behind parting ways with Entain, citing regulatory changes within Canadian gaming as well as economic factors. 

“Due to the change in the regulatory landscape for gaming in Canada and economic reasons, we have made the decision to part ways with Entain PLC and look forward to maintaining a cordial relationship in the future,” Diabo explained. 

He continued by outlining the new opportunities now presented to the MCK as a result of severing ties with Entain: “The end of the partnership with Entain will certainly bring forth new opportunities, as the conclusion of the partnership also releases MCK from its obligations of exclusivity,” Diabo said.   

“MCK is now free to pursue other opportunities in online gaming, under a new brand.” 

It has also been confirmed that Entain will keep its back office from the Mohawk Territory of Kahnawà:ke and maintain its KGC license. 

However, while speaking to The Eastern Door, Diabo conceded that there is no immediate next chapter on the cards for the MOL. 

“Essentially, right now, it’s just on hiatus,” the MCK chief said. “Whether or not we plan to cancel the name or just keep it on the books for another opportunity, we’ve yet to have that conversation.”