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When Alberta opens its iGaming market on July 13, the provincially owned gaming platform will lose its monopoly on legal electronic gambling.
Launched in 2020, Play Alberta generates close to $250 million CAD in net sales per year (about $176 million when converted to USD). It had been the only legal iGaming platform in the province, but that comes to an end on July 13, when about 50 new players will enter the regulated Alberta market.
From all of these sites, Alberta will take 20 per cent of the revenue, with two per cent earmarked for First Nations in the province. The regulated market is expected to bring in far more revenue to the province than Play Alberta did on its own.
Despite the big numbers brought in by Play Alberta, the provincial government estimates it only made up about 30 per cent of the money being spent online on Alberta sports betting and Alberta casino games. More than two thirds of the estimated money spent was going to offshore, unregulated platforms.
So, the province has an interesting proposition on its hands: how to take in revenue through a bevy of new licensed sites, but ensuring that Play Alberta remains competitive in this new marketplace.
PlayAlberta’s Home Team Advantage
Lynden McBeth, spokesperson for Alberta Gaming, Liquor and Cannabis, said that Play Alberta has some built-in home-team advantages that will give it a leg up on the new competitors coming into the province.
Play Alberta has deals in place with the world-famous Calgary Stampede rodeo and the Edmonton Elks and Calgary Stampeders of the Canadian Football League.
And, in hockey-mad Alberta, where the Edmonton Oilers have emerged as one of the top sports brands in the world, and the Calgary Flames will soon move into a new state-of-the-art arena, leveraging the National Hockey League is more important than any other game in town.
How important is hockey? Forbes just listed the Oilers as the NHL’s most profitable team and the third most profitable sports franchise in the world, trailing only the NFL’s Dallas Cowboys and the NBA’s Golden State Warriors.
Promoting the home teams will be key to Play Alberta’s post-July 13 strategy.
“Through competitive offerings and partnerships with provincially recognized brands such as the Elks, Stampeders and Calgary Stampede, among others, Play Alberta will continue to build a competitive platform featuring products that they care about in order to attract and retain players in a new era of iGaming. As the launch for the iGaming market draws near, Play Alberta continues to focus on expanding features that are exclusive to Albertans, such as new additions of Oilers and Flames branded games and other well-recognized titles only available on Play Alberta” said McBeth.
