August 15, 2024 1j2f2m

In May this year, the Government of Alberta ed legislation that would essentially allow the legal Ontario sportsbooks and even more online casinos. For those in Wild Rose Country that enjoy gambling online, this was great news. More player choice within a fully legal context is on the horizon. Soon, Alberta's fully legal sports betting and casino options will be wider than PlayAlberta-dot-com, hopefully with a bunch of really helpful player protections.

So, the next most pressing question for interested players is: "When might the Alberta igaming market open?" As a result of a recent corporate earnings conference call, we have insight into how at least one major Ontario operator is thinking about this. Jay Snowden, CEO of Penn Entertainment, owner of theScore Bet, said the following in their 2024 second quarter earnings conference call, about when the Alberta market might open, and his thoughts about its potential for the company:

"We don’t have an exact date on Alberta, and I don’t want to speak obviously for the government or the regulators there. But I would say, we’re thinking sometime towards the end of this year (2024), early 2025 is kind of the rough time frame. We would anticipate that the success that we’ve seen in Ontario with theScore and theScore BET, we would be able to replicate that in Alberta. TheScore is a very popular brand throughout Canada. It’s not just a Toronto or Ontario thing. So, given the success we’ve had in Ontario and given that Alberta will have very similar tax rates as we understand it and be both OSB and iCasino, we think it’s going to be a really important North American market for us, probably a top three or four market for us."

Undoubtedly, the vast majority of the most successful Ontario brands will look to enter the Alberta market. Of course, above, Penn indicated that theScore Bet would look to enter. On the most recent Super Group earnings call, CEO Neal Menashe, also indicated that his company's group of brands were ready and waiting for Alberta regulation:

"We are super ready for it. Everything we did in Ontario, we’ve learned how to do it even better. So the teams are ready and waiting (for) when Alberta regulates."

For Super Group, which is a leader in Ontario and Canada's "grey market", this means its main Betway brand, and likely some or all of its four legal Ontario online casinos could enter Alberta, those being Spin Casino, JackpotCity Casino, RubyFortune and Royal Vegas. These brands are casino-only providers.

However, not all gaming company CEOs are rushing to talk about their experience in the Ontario market, tipping their hand on Alberta. With so many Ontario operators, only so many can be near the top of the list, so CEOs in charge of brands like FanDuel, DraftKings, BetRivers, BetMGM among others have not and will not look to talk much about Alberta either. While these brands, which are live in various US states plus Ontario, they won't be at the top of the list of legal Alberta betting sites in of the numbers of players they have, or attract after the market opens, but we do expect these brands to enter. 

After all, the cost of entering the Alberta market should be very small in comparison to their large respective marketing spends in Ontario and the US to this point. Not plugging their platforms into a new market would be unthinkable, particularly since the lucrative icasino vertical will be part of the Alberta market.

Which now "grey market" brands, will switch to the legal Alberta market once opened? 6z1e5i

We are not speaking for any particular brand here. These are our strong opinions on the matter. We think most of the grey-to-legal brands that made the shift in Ontario, will do the same for Alberta. However, with a higher degree of certainty, we fully expect that our top-3 Canadian betting sites will indeed shift their Alberta-based players from their "offshore" platforms to their legal Alberta platforms, once the market is open and ready to go. So if you cannot wait to get started, but you'd like a consistent experience before and after the market opens, give those three operators a look.  They're ready now from offshore, and they'll be ready and "legal" later. (They're also our top-3 legal Ontario sportsbook brands.)

Is Alberta a large enough market to significant consumer choice in igaming brands? 2d4c5k

Yes, it is. Even though Alberta is much smaller in of population compared to Ontario, which also s significant consumer choice in its market, the median income level in Alberta is the highest in Canada, and it's not close. Furthermore, since the lucrative icasino vertical will be made available to go along with P2P poker and sports betting verticals, smaller brand operators will be able remain viable, allowing wider choice for consumers. Compare this to what is essentially a very limited choice of operators as found in the US states which only offer legal online sports betting, without the icasino vertical. There, you'll find an effective duopoly between FanDuel and DraftKings. This won't happen in Alberta with icasino on offer.

Still not sure that a market with a smallish population can have a robust market with lots of brand choice? Have a look at Denmark, which happens to be the model upon which the Ontario market was built. With a population of less than 6 million, Denmark has a vibrant igaming market, with all the same gaming verticals, and what will be a similar tax rate, around 20%.  At last check, Denmark had over 40 companies operating, with over 100 regulated sites across casino, bingo, poker and sports betting verticals.

As long as Alberta keeps their license fee to a minimum (Ontario's fee is $100,000 per brand) and keeps their tax rate in line with Ontario, Alberta should encourage nearly all the Ontario brands to enter their market.  Given how closely Alberta seems to be working with Ontario in advance of developing their regulatory framework, perhaps we might see some manner of relationship between the two jurisdictions.  Given provincial politics, it could be difficult to "sell" Alberta on a solution which merely plugs into, or piggy backs on iGaming Ontario.  They essentially managed to do just that within Australia, where gaming providers ed in a given territory can serve people based across that entire country. 

Could these two provinces come to a similar agreement to enable maximum revenue, consumer choice & player protections for igaming in Alberta? We won't have to wait much longer for the answers.

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