Bhargava will advise on Ontario's new iGaming market and Indian cross-border work
When Vancouver-based Ron Segev decided to expand his firm into Toronto, Ontario’s burgeoning iGaming market was a critical factor. But he was also looking much farther east.
Segev invited Manav Bhargava to lead Segev LLP’s gaming and regulatory compliance practice in the province. In addition to being a member of the Law Society of Ontario, Bhargava is licensed to practise in India.
India’s potential “came across our radar about a year and a half, two years ago,” says Segev. “Our Canadian and US clients were starting to do business in India. They were making investments in Indian interactive entertainment companies.”
In addition to their North American clients’ interests, Bhargava also saw opportunities to advise high-net-worth Indian clients about doing business in Canada. Bhargava completed an LL.M. from Osgoode Hall law school after earning an LL.B from Nirma University in Ahmedabad.
“My work as a dual licensed attorney would also be to bridge the gap, understand the way Indian businesses work, what they are looking for, what they are used to, and serve their needs in a way they are familiar with,” says Bhargava.
Before he joined Segev, Bhargava worked in-house at Kaizen Gaming, preceded by stints with Esports Capital Corp. and FairP2P. His in-house experience was one of the primary reasons he and Segev hit it off. Before founding his firm, Segev worked in-house at the Stockholm-based gaming and betting company Digital Ocean Marketing as the general counsel of their Canadian operation.
“I started off in private practice,” says Segev. “And I felt a bit frustrated because I wasn't involved deeply enough with the client’s business. And I felt like I could add more value than I was as traditional outside counsel.”
Segev says Digital Ocean Marketing had a “flat” organizational structure, and “I thought it might be interesting to open a law firm that adopted the same culture as this technology company.”
Segev’s firm, which he launched in 2013, has clients spanning the gaming, food, beverage, hospitality, technology, real estate, cannabis and blockchain industries. Still, he says the “unifying thread” is that they are all “creative disruptors.”
So, when the legal iGaming market emerged in Ontario in 2022, opening an office in the province made sense.
“It's turned into what is now the fifth largest gaming and betting market in North America and basically returned almost $1.4 billion to government coffers in the way of tax revenue,” says Segev.
While working at FairP2P, Bhargava helped set standards for competitive peer-to-peer gaming to ensure integrity in the industry. So, his industry experience and in-house mindset made him a fit for Segev.
“When you're embedded as general counsel, you're always using ‘we’ language,” says Segev. “We like to say that … we give a damn and score wins for our clients. That's not just catchy marketing. That's actually born of our in-house experience, that we spent years scoring wins for our team. We still have that in our DNA.”
Segev says his firm eventually opened an office in the US when Canadian clients had questions about US law. Client needs similarly drive the connections Bhargava will bring to the Indian market.
“Our clients want to head to India. We liken it to China in the early 90s. We're at the blade portion of the hockey stick. And I think now's a perfect time to do it,” says Segev.
“Our clients are looking at the Indian market in several ways. One is accessing the market opportunity, but also accessing the pool of talent over there, all of the low cost extremely sophisticated development talent.”
In addition to hiring Bhargava, Segev’s firm also entered into a memorandum of understanding with Singhania & Co., an Indian law firm with multiple offices in the country and international offices in London and Dubai.
Bhargava says Indian technology talent is looking to Canada because of the immigration uncertainty in the US.
“India boasts the world’s fifth-largest global economy while simultaneously maintaining its position as one of the fastest-growing. This growth is fuelled by its dynamic and young population, with an impressive 65 percent of its citizens under the age of 35,” Segev said in a press release announcing the partnership.
