Evolution will expand Canada Live Casino to Quebec

Evolution to launch live dealer casino games in Quebec.

It’s been nearly a decade since Quebec’s gaming regulators, Loto-Quebec, made the bold move to launch a provincial online gambling website. Espacejeux.com went live in 2010, and had been an ideological ‘work in progress’ ever since. From its humble beginnings, the website was already operating leaps and bounds ahead of its Canadian cousins.

Quebec’s iGaming portal opened its virtual doors with a treasure trove of online casino games and an online poker room with eight game variants, then went straight to work to add bingo and sports betting to its menu. Espacejeux is still the only provincially-run gambling website to offer online poker. But there’s one area in which Loto-Quebec has fallen behind, and that’s the provision of a locally-hosted Canada live casino to Quebec players.

Since the first live casino studios launched in the early 2000s, such operations have always been hosted in obscure, offshore locations. Latvia, a small European country slightly larger than Nova Scotia, located in the Baltic Region of Northern Europe, has been the most prominent hub for live dealer casino studios.

Players from many regions of the world, including Canada, have always had access to these games. But it was the British Columbia Lottery Corp (BCLC) that first brought live casino gaming onto Canadian soil. The regulator struck a deal with Evolution Gaming in April of 2017, and witnessed the launch of live casino games on Playnow in January 2018. By a shared-product contract, that offering also became available to players in Manitoba. Now, Loto-Quebec wants in on the action.

Evolution to Launch Live Dealer Casino Games in Quebec

Quebec’s gaming regulators approached Evolution Gaming to negotiate a contract to bring its Canada live casino to Quebec. Being a province of prominently French-speaking people, the live dealer product is to be called ‘Casino en Direct‘. The live dealer tables will be hosted from the same 15,000 square foot studio in Vancouver, BC, with the first live tables set to launch before the end of the month.

According to Evolution Gaming’s press release announcing the new deal this morning, a total of 10 tables will be opened for members of the Quebec live casino. Six of those tables will be Espacejeux branded—five of which will be hosted by French-speaking dealers, and the sixth geared towards an English-speaking audience.

Like Loto-Quebec’s existing iGaming products, which currently span online casino, poker, sports, lottery, bingo and XP games, the new live casino offering will be optimized for all popular platforms; desktop, tablet and mobile phone.

“We’re thrilled to be launching Casino en direct!” says Loto-Quebec Online Product Manager, Sovanna Phan. “It’s innovative, and a great addition to what we already offer our customers…” Phan goes on to enthuse over the “many ways” launching live dealer casino games in Quebec will “appeal to different players.”

Evolution’s North American chief Business Officer, James Stern, shared similar sentiments regarding the upcoming launch. He’s particularly excited about the opportunity to provide yet another “native speaking dealer solution”; something his company has been excelling in for more than a decade. Stern believes the new service “underlines the flexibility of our Vancouver studio and our vast experience in the provision of Live Casino solutions.”