In May of this year, OLG initiated a Request for Information (RFI) process for its land-based gaming operations. The purpose of the RFI was to gather input from potential qualified service providers for the day-to-day operation of gaming in Ontario.

“We received more than 100 responses from a wide range of proponents,” said Rod Phillips, President and CEO, OLG. “The RFI process has provided us with a better understanding of the complexity of the change we are making as an organization.”

During the RFI process, a number of respondents told OLG that grouping some of the 29 identified Gaming Zones into Gaming Bundles would help OLG to more effectively manage the gaming market in Ontario. They also said it would create opportunities for service providers to realize revenue and cost synergies by operating multiple facilities in a given region.

As a result, OLG today announced it has grouped eight previously announced Gaming Zones into two Gaming Bundles and is asking interested service providers to demonstrate their ability to operate multiple facilities in Eastern and Northern Ontario.

It’s important to note that the bundling of Gaming Zones does not mean that current or proposed facilities, or proposed Gaming Zones, would be merged. But rather that one service provider could operate facilities in more than one Gaming Zone.

The announcement of the new Gaming Bundles was included in the launch of three separate Requests for Pre-Qualification (RFPQ), one for the Gaming Zone in the Ottawa area, and one for each of the two bundled areas mentioned above.

Qualified service providers interested in bidding on one of the two new Gaming Bundles are required to submit proposals on the entire bundle, not on individual Gaming Zones or Gaming Sites contained within a Gaming Bundle.

OLG intends to issue separate RFPQs for the remaining Gaming Zones, some in Gaming Bundles, over the next several months.

For more information on today’s RFPQ launch, read the backgrounder.

For more information on the location of OLG’s proposed Gaming Zones, view the map of Gaming Zones.

For more information on Gaming Zones, read ‘the science behind OLG’s gaming zones’.