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DraftKings is seeing a lot of action on the Canadian Football League‘s Edmonton Elks just over a month into regulated betting in Alberta.
Even though the National Hockey League is the biggest sports property in Canada, there hasn’t been much futures action or faith in the Edmonton Oilers, who went to the Stanley Cup Finals two of the previous three seasons. The addition of new head coach Mike Babcock has not stimulated the market,
As for the CFL, the Edmonton Elks are the Grey Cup pick of 55% of Alberta bettor. The team also accounts for more than half of the total handle, or dollars wagered, on the league.
“They’ve been successful so far, and I only think they’re going to be successful for the rest of the year because their remaining schedule is not that difficult,” said Johnny Avello, DraftKings’ director of race and sports operations. “They play a lot of teams that are under .500 or that they’ve beat already. Only the Montreal Alouettes seem to be standing in their way for the Grey Cup. But the Elks were a good price to start the season, and people have backed them.”
Oilers rank fourth at DraftKings
Meanwhile, the Oilers are the choice of just 6% of DraftKings’ Alberta users to win the Stanley Cup, and just 6% of total handle has been spent on the Oilers. The Florida Panthers, who beat the Oilers in the 2024 and 2025 Stanley Cup Finals but missed the playoffs in 2026, are the pick of 25% of Alberta bettors to win the Cup for a third time in four years.
“The Oilers are only the fourth choice,” said Avello. “And the [Vegas] Golden Knights are very close to the Oilers, taking the same amount of handles, same amount of bets.”
After the Panthers, Albertans are putting Stanley Cup money down on the Colorado Avalanche and the defending champion Carolina Hurricanes.
DraftKings reported that it has received one $500 futures bet on the New Jersey Devils to win the Cup. If that happens, it would trigger a $15,000 payout.
NFL is king, but are Seahawks?
Avello said that DraftKings’ first month of operation went well, and it will get better once the NFL starts in September. While Canadian bettors like hockey and Canadian football, they are drawn to the American gridiron and all the potential bets that can be made, from futures to props and spreads.
The NFL is a major player in the betting market, and, in the futures market, Albertans are betting against their de facto “home” team. The Seattle Seahawks are broadcast through U.S. affiliates into Alberta, and are the closest team to the province. The Seahawks won the Super Bowl in 2026, but aren’t seeing a lot of action from Alberta gamblers.
In fact, 26% of DraftKings’ Alberta bettors are picking the Seahawks bitter divisional rivals, the Los Angeles Rams, to win the Super Bowl. Another divisional rival, the San Francisco 49ers – devastated by injuries in 2025-26 – are getting 14% of the handle, making them second favorite to the Rams to win the Super Bowl, at least according to the Albertans placing early money on the football season.
“The only reason I can think of why they’ve gone towards the Rams is because the Rams are one of the favorites and have a complete team, and should be in the mix,” said Avello.
Support should grow once season starts
He said the reason Alberta bettors are going heavy on the Rams and 49ers is because of the geographic proximity to the teams in the NFC West. They don’t just know the Seahawks well, they’re also knowledgeable about their divisional rivals.
The Seahawks are getting just 2% of the handle. That’s only 10th on the list of Super Bowl favorites as chosen by Alberta bettors. But Avello expects that, when the biggest betting property of them all begins its season in September, there will be a lot of weekly action on the Seahawks.
“I’m sure when the regular season starts, with that many Seahawks fans in Alberta, the Seahawks are going to be the choice every time they play,” he said.
World Cup favorites hit bottom line
Alberta’s regulated iGaming market went live July 13, making it the second province in Canada to embrace a legal online betting environment. While it wasn’t ready for the beginning of the World Cup, DraftKings, like 21 other sites, were live for the latter stages of the world’s biggest tournament.
Avello said that interest was high, even though with one of the favorites, Spain, winning the tournament, it wasn’t super lucrative for DraftKings. Favorites generate heavy traffic, and when they win, sites tend to be in heavy payout territory.
A big longshot win makes headlines and underdogs generate some eye-popping payouts, but, as a rule, those rare underdog payouts are more than covered by the people who lost out by betting on the favorite. But, when Spain wins the World Cup and stars like Kylian Mbappe, Erling Haaland and Lionel Messi are scoring each and every time they go out there, the “safe” bets are all paying out.
“People really embraced the World Cup,” said Avello. “It was a great tournament. The times of the games were really conducive to people playing. You didn’t have to worry about playing in the middle of the night or early morning. The tournament was huge for us in terms of the amount of money we took in. We did take some lumps when some of the favorites won and the goal scorers who were anticipated to score did just that. But it was one of our best events of the year.”
