March 31, 2025 512225
There has been a lot of gaming news coming out of Alberta lately. They recently moved ahead to table iGaming legislation that could see the creation of its own market, whether on their own or by partnering with another province. They've given their one and only "legal" online gaming brand, Play Alberta, a brand and platform refresh. Simultaneously, the AGLC released their latest annual report for the 2023/24 fiscal year. While much of the report reads in a typical fashion for these kinds of provincial gaming reports, we found there to be one particularly notable point of interest that can actually shed light on what is normally a black hole within these reports. The AGLC actually listed the amount of online sports betting revenue that they generated through Play Alberta.
Generally speaking, rather than break out or isolate this figure, Canadian lottery corporations have found ways to be opaque. In Ontario, the OLG lumps their "iCasino" and "iSports" results together. BCLC offers a single "sports betting" line item in its recent report, which includes online revenue from PlayNow, along with revenue from their lottery sports betting product as sold at 3,400 retailers across BC. Loto-Québec simply provided one big online gaming revenue number that spans all its iGaming verticals for the 2022/23 year, and failed to give this overall iGaming revenue figure in their 2023/24 report.
The reason for opacity in reporting online sports betting revenues is fairly obvious to those that watch the space - their online sports betting products have been terrible. Lottery corporation online casino options all tend to offer the same slots and live dealer games that are available at top "grey market" or legal private options in Ontario. When consumers think that iGaming products are equal, they are more likely to play on platforms that return more of the proceeds to their province. This is why we would have always stated that online casino revenues are what drive iGaming earnings at provincial lottery corporations.
However, consumers know very well that things are not equal when comparing online sports betting products at "legal" provincial lottery corporations against those in the "grey market", or the legal Ontario market. Industry pundits and bettors have long waxed about how little the provinces must be earning through their online bookmaker businesses, due to poor odds, relatively poor platforms and fewer payment options.
Interested observers knew the provincial online sports betting revenues numbers would be paltry, which is the likely reason that the numbers have remained disaggregated - until now. The latest report from the AGLC finally gives us a window into just how low this online sports betting figure has been within a large Canadian jurisdiction. The only "legal" online sports betting option for Alberta earned just $5.6 million in the 2023/24 period. This was just 2.4% of the $235 million in online revenue earned across Play Alberta gaming verticals. Various lottery and casino products made up the other 97.6% of online revenue.
Let's put this into perspective. The 2023/24 iGaming Ontario audited report showed sports betting revenue of $523 million from its numerous "private" operators. Alberta is creating a regulated iGaming market soon. If Alberta had a market of operators identical to iGaming Ontario within its jurisdiction, adjusting for population, given Alberta is about one-third the size of Ontario, we can make a basic estimate of the online sports betting revenue for the most populous Prairie province of around $173 million ($523M divided by 3).
To recap, that's $5.6 million in online sports betting revenue at Play Alberta, versus $173 million in a fictitious, or perhaps prospective equivalent Alberta version of iGaming Ontario. Of course, the problem is not simply that this is a potential disparity. It is revenue that has been leaving Alberta every year, toward the so-called "grey market," since several significant and highly visible sports betting brands in the legal Ontario market and beyond, also serve Alberta and the rest of Canada from their offshore sites.
Were there a partnership with iGaming Ontario so that the $173 million in prospective online sports betting earnings could exist in a regulated market, Alberta's 20% share (just like Ontario's share) with the market's operators would yield about $35 million, which is over six times the amount of sports betting revenue due to the province from Play Alberta.
Alberta has taught us all something here. In finally revealing their tiny online sports betting revenues, they have confirmed what many had suspected for so long. If the potential revenue from a market of legal Alberta betting sites is over 30 times higher than the current legal option at Play Alberta, what's the situation with BCLC and PlayNow, and with Loto-Québec and Miseojeu+? Given the similar characteristics of other provincial lottery online sportsbook products, Quebec and BC online sports betting revenues will no doubt be at similarly low levels. We can't know for sure because Quebec and BC have not disaggregated the figures, but we can speculate since we now have a point of reference on the matter.
In the BCLC 2023/24 report linked above, they reported $442 million in total iGaming revenues across verticals. If they experienced the same proportion of online sports betting revenue as per the AGLC at 2.4%, the BCLC PlayNow sports betting revenue number would be just $10.6 million. The reported BCLC overall sports betting revenue was just $35.5 million, but that included their Proline retail lottery product.
If we look at the recent OLG report from Ontario for 2023/24, their retail sports lottery product alone saw proceeds of $352 million. If we divide that figure by three to adjust for population disparity, the Ontario retail lottery sports wagering product alone brought over three times the amount of all sports betting within BCLC.
Seeing as the Ontario retail lottery sports product sales alone dwarf all sports betting revenues in BC, even with a regulated market of online "private" operators as part of iGaming Ontario, we would posit two things. 1) Given how relatively weak the Proline product appears to perform in BC compared to Ontario, we would say that the "grey market" activity in BC is even stronger than it was in Ontario prior to iGaming legalization. 2) That PlayNow's online sports betting revenues are indeed in a $10 to $15 million range, and that the 3,400 lottery retailers across BC are bringing in the rest of the sports betting revenues.
If we are generous and assume $15 million to be PlayNow's online sports betting revenue, that's less than half of what the province could bring in were they to regulate to bring an iGaming Ontario-like market BC betting sites for their residents. BC and Alberta are similar in market size, we can assume BC would see annual online sports betting revenue near the $173 million figure proposed above. A 20% provincial share (as with iGaming Ontario) would bring approximately $35 million to BC coffers, more than twice the amount that PlayNow currently brings from this vertical.
Surprisingly, Loto-Québec did not break out any iGaming numbers for their 2023/24 year. If we go back to their 2022/23 report linked above, they showed $404 million in overall online gaming revenues across lottery, casino and event betting categories. If we apply the same online sports betting revenue proportion as reported by the AGLC for Alberta at 2.4%, Quebec would have pulled in just $9.7 million of revenue from this vertical. Irrespective of gaming vertical, given how much Loto-Québec spends on marketing in the province, it's incredible to think that they earned less online gaming revenue than British Columbia, which has 3.4 million fewer people.
Specific to sports betting, it's astounding to think that a province of over 9 million people would bring in little more than $9 million in online betting revenue. Even if we adjust the value of Quebec customers downward 5% due to lower median income compared to Ontario, the amount of sports betting revenue from an iGaming Ontario-like market of operators would be in the region of $280 million per year. The province's 20% share of that (as with Ontario) would be over $55 million, which is clearly several factors larger than what Loto-Québec is likely currently bringing in via Miseojeu+.
When the AGLC published their latest report, they knew Alberta was moving toward a regulated iGaming market in some form. This was perhaps a contributing factor for why they broke the mould and itted to their incredibly low online sports betting revenue figures for the very first time. BC and Quebec show no signs of movement toward a regulated market, which is why they must certainly continue to feel the need to hide similarly embarrassing online sports betting results.
Perhaps now with two provinces setting a precedent on iGaming regulation, leading to greater provincial revenues and safer citizens, BC, Quebec, and the rest of Canada can start to feel a little FOMO over regulated online sports betting. Thanks to the AGLC's latest online sports betting figure revelations, it's getting harder for other lottery corporations to hide their failures.
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