1 Is Alberta a Billion-Dollar Sports Betting and IGaming Market?
patti74f111899 edited this page 2026-04-30 07:22:13 +08:00


There is good reason to think that Alberta will be a real moneymaker for the online gaming industry.

It may even be a near billion-dollar market. Someday, possibly.

- Alberta is preparing to release a managed iGaming market, which would make it Canada's second province after Ontario to permit private online sportsbook and casino operators.

- Comparisons to Ontario's multibillion-dollar market and data from the Alberta Gaming, Liquor and Cannabis Commission suggest Alberta's overall online gaming income could be in the numerous millions annually.

- The Alberta iGaming market will include preexisting operators and those that have yet to introduce online sports wagering and iCasino in the province.

First, however, that market requires to open.

Alberta has actually been working for years on a competitive, regulated structure for online sports wagering and internet-based casino games. The prepare for the brand-new Alberta sports betting and iGaming market is to welcome, license, and control private-sector operators, which will turn over a bit more than 20% of their profits to the province in return.

And when Alberta's iGaming market launches, which some business now anticipate to occur in the late spring or early summertime, it will bring the number of provincially regulated online gambling choices for residents from one, Play Alberta, to several. It will also make Alberta the 2nd province in Canada to authorize private-sector iGaming competitors, after Ontario launched a similar market in 2022.

Alberta's de facto iGaming minister, Dale Nally, has stated the provincial government doesn't see this as a "money grab" however instead as a method to offer more customer defense. Still, some money will be grabbed, including to support responsible gaming programs and the province's First Nations.

"Once the controlled market is established, Alberta's federal government will be able to catch betting profits presently lost to uncontrolled websites frequently located outside of Alberta," Nally stated last year. "This brand-new earnings can be utilized to support First Nations as well as social duty initiatives and other government top priorities."

In the grand scheme of things, Alberta's launch this year will be a relatively huge offer for the world of legalized sports betting and online gambling establishment betting.

It appears unlikely that there will be a flurry of state-level launches in the U.S. in 2026 (Maine may be one, at least), especially with federally managed forecast markets complicating things with their across the country type of de facto sports betting.

That leaves Alberta as a source of certainty for significant betting operators. DraftKings, for example, is budgeting for a launch of online sports wagering and iCasino in the province later on this year.

Super Group, Betway's moms and dad company, has baked into its 2026 estimates a Q2 launch of online sports wagering and iCasino in Alberta's yet-to-launch regulated iGaming market. pic.twitter.com/TlAypxbsDe

Nevertheless, there are numbers that suggest Alberta would be a concern for the online gambling industry even if it were just among many brand-new jurisdictions set to launch. The province has the possible to create lots of iGaming revenue for both private operators and the province. That's why brand names like DraftKings, Betway, and BetRivers are lining up to join its regulated market.

So just how much would Alberta truly be worth?

To begin, there is currently a province in Canada running the very same sort of iGaming market that Alberta intends to launch: Ontario. The figures reported by Ontario's iGaming agency recommend major capacity in Alberta as well.

Ontario launched its competitive iGaming market in April 2022, and there are now around 50 operators and more than 80 websites using online sports wagering, iCasino, poker, and bingo.

In January, more than $9.5 billion was wagered using those websites, generating more than $400 million in income for operators and the province, which keeps around 20% of receipts. The first year of Ontario's new iGaming market saw around $35.6 billion bet and approximately $1.4 billion in overall video gaming revenue produced.

(Quick aside: We're mostly discussing earnings in this post, not total betting or "deal with." As the Ontario numbers suggest, the total amount bet in the province, and in Alberta, will regularly remain in the billions. However, some of those bets will be won. The revenue mentioned here is what's left over after paying those winners.)

Some juicy stats

Data offered to Covers by Juice Reel, an app sports bettors can utilize to track their plays which provides analytics and the capability to tail other wagerers, recommends similarities in between Alberta and Ontario gamblers.

Juice Reel said the typical bet size for Alberta-based users was $32, and the typical month-to-month deal with for January was $5,151. Albertans were likewise utilizing, usually, 1.3 online sportsbooks, and 37% of their bets were parlays.

To compare, the average bet size for Juice Reel's Ontario-based users was $34, and the average regular monthly handle was $8,679. The typical variety of books used was 2.17, and the parlay percentage was 41%. The mean bet size in both jurisdictions was $10.

There are some cautions to the above worth noting. For beginners, this is based on bets tracked utilizing Juice Reel. Moreover, anyone utilizing a bet-tracking app like Juice Reel is most likely a notch or 2 above the most leisure of gamblers.

Juice Reel's data likewise includes overseas and provincially controlled books, as well as everyday dream sites. However, not every book that Alberta and Ontario wagerers may be utilizing is captured in the numbers.

DraftKings feels quite certain that the launch of its online sportsbook/casino in Alberta is "around the corner," and is anticipating its financials appropriately: https://t.co/1R5ZCywuHk @Covers

Still, Juice Reel kept in mind the data suggests similarities between Alberta and Ontario. However, the former has yet to carry out an Ontario-like iGaming model and authorize a few of the operators present just in Ontario at the minute.

Ontario is also Canada's most populated province, with a population of around 16 million. It's unlikely Alberta and its around five-million-strong population will produce the same numbers. Still, simply the rough population mathematics alone hints that Alberta might be worth around a third of what Ontario is doing. That would mean around $460 million in iGaming-related income in Year 1.

That would be simply to begin. There is proof that the typical Albertan could out-gamble the average Ontarian too.

Anecdotally, you might indicate Albertans' intense love affair with the Edmonton Oilers' "50/50" raffle, which has actually raised numerous millions of dollars for charity. You could likewise indicate research study by Statistics Canada showing the typical yearly income in Alberta is roughly $30,000 higher than in Ontario.

It's worth keeping in mind, too, that Ontario's iGaming earnings has actually continued to grow given that its launch. While roughly $1.4 billion in total gaming revenue was produced in Year 1, more than $4 billion was produced in 2025, according to figures from iGaming Ontario.

How Alberta's currently playing

Furthermore, there are financials you could parse from Alberta's only authorized iGaming operator at the minute. Those might be utilized to attempt to project the total size of the province's online gambling market.

The Alberta Gaming, Liquor and Cannabis Commission (AGLC) reported in its latest yearly report that its online betting net sales (or net income) for the year ending March 31, 2025, were practically $270 million, up $35 million from the previous financial year.

That profits flowed from "5 unique gaming experiences" used by means of the AGLC's Play Alberta platform: gambling establishment, "immediate" games, live dealership video games, lotto, and online sports wagering.

The bulk of Play Alberta's online betting profits originates from money bettors lose playing casino-style video games, which accounted for 73.1% of net sales for the most recently reported year, or $197.3 million. Sports betting, on the other hand, produced the least for Play Alberta of all of its verticals, producing just shy of $8 million in net sales, or 3% of the overall.

This, nevertheless, only catches part of the existing market for online betting in Alberta. It's approximated that the bulk of internet-based betting occurs with companies that might be regulated abroad or outside the province, but not by the province itself.

This so-called "grey" or "black" market is making the lion's share of business from Alberta's online bettors. The robust and "unregulated" market is probably the chief reason Alberta is launching a managed iGaming market in the first place - to attempt to record that activity.

"Unregulated online gaming is already commonly readily available throughout the province, with some service providers running with limited or no player protection or social responsibility steps," the provincial federal government states. "Based on current study information, unregulated operators are approximated to record roughly 70% of Alberta's overall iGaming market."

This recommends Play Alberta accounts for around 30% of iGaming-related profits being created in the province. That would also suggest the general size of Alberta's online betting market is somewhere in the of $900 million in yearly profits.

It's a quite loose quote, and an old one, as the most current AGLC figures only go to March 31, 2025. However, if the $270 million in Play Alberta-related net sales is simply 30% of the total addressable market, that implies another $630 million is being earned somewhere else.

(The Alberta government stated just recently that Play Alberta created $275 million in net sales over the previous year, which the platform is estimated to capture only around 23% to 32% of the province's overall iGaming market. But, for the functions of this estimate-heavy story, we're playing things on the conservative side.)

Guesstimation time

Again, this is a great deal of estimating, forecasting, and extrapolating, however it's not far off from the "B" word: "billion."

Other data suggests even more upside for Alberta.

A 2024 research study conducted by research company H2 Gambling Capital on behalf of the International Betting Integrity Association suggested there might be hundreds of millions of dollars in "uncontrolled" online sports betting income in Alberta. That earnings could be funnelled into Alberta's regulated market.

"If (an Ontario-like iGaming) design was introduced from the start of 2025, that might bring around $400m in taxable sports betting (gross gaming revenue) back onshore during 2025-28 on present overseas market projections," the report said. "However, a regulated commercial market would also be anticipated to grow the total market and the real taxable GGR capacity is therefore expected to be greater."

Alberta's forthcoming iGaming market might eventually produce more than US$ 700M a year in revenue, according to Citizens JMP Securities analyst Jordan Bender.

"If $700M of video gaming earnings is met, it would represent the eighth-largest gaming market in The United States and Canada." pic.twitter.com/E6IJX9DASe

This additional profits for the managed market would be simply connected to online sports betting. It does not even consist of iCasino, which the Play Alberta figures recommend would comprise the majority of iGaming earnings. Play Alberta's online sportsbook is just supplying a low single-digit share of its earnings also.

So, there is possibly even more room to grow. And it's here that we begin drawing nearer to the billion-dollar mark once again.

Another 2024 research study, done by analysts at financial investment bank Citizens, forecast Alberta's iGaming market might become worth more than US$ 700 million in profits a year.

That US$ 700 million would exercise to around $950 million in Canadian currency. This would make it similar in size to Arizona's sports wagering market, which generated $713.8 million in gross income in 2015.