There is great factor to think that Alberta will be a real moneymaker for the online betting industry.

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

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

- Comparisons to Ontario's multibillion-dollar market and information from the Alberta Gaming, Liquor and Cannabis Commission suggest Alberta's total online betting revenue could be in the numerous millions every year.

- The Alberta iGaming market will consist of preexisting operators and those that have yet to release online sports betting and iCasino in the province.

First, however, that market requires to open.

Alberta has actually been working for years on a competitive, regulated framework for online sports betting and internet-based casino video games. The plan for the brand-new Alberta sports wagering and iGaming market is to invite, license, and regulate 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 happen in the late spring or early summertime, it will bring the number of provincially regulated online betting alternatives for homeowners from one, Play Alberta, to multiple. It will likewise make Alberta the 2nd province in Canada to license private-sector iGaming competitors, after Ontario introduced a similar market in 2022.

Alberta's de facto iGaming minister, Dale Nally, has said the provincial government doesn't see this as a "cash grab" however rather as a method to provide more customer security. Still, some money will be grabbed, consisting of to support responsible betting programs and the province's First Nations.

"Once the regulated market is established, Alberta's federal government will be able to catch gambling incomes currently lost to unregulated websites typically situated outside of Alberta," Nally said in 2015. "This new earnings can be used to support First Nations in addition to social responsibility initiatives and other government priorities."

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

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), specifically with federally controlled forecast markets making complex things with their nationwide form of de facto sports wagering.

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

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

Nevertheless, there are numbers that recommend Alberta would be a top priority for the online gambling industry even if it were just among many new jurisdictions set to release. The province has the possible to generate plenty of iGaming revenue for both personal 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 actually deserve?

To start, there is currently a province in Canada running the exact same sort of iGaming market that Alberta intends to launch: Ontario. The figures reported by Ontario's iGaming company suggest major capacity in Alberta also.

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

In January, more than $9.5 billion was wagered using those sites, creating more than $400 million in earnings for operators and the province, which keeps around 20% of receipts. The first year of Ontario's brand-new iGaming market saw around $35.6 billion bet and around $1.4 billion in total video gaming earnings produced.

(Quick aside: We're mostly speaking about income in this post, not total betting or "handle." As the Ontario numbers indicate, the overall quantity bet in the province, and in Alberta, will frequently be in the billions. However, a few of those bets will be won. The revenue discussed here is what's left over after paying those winners.)

Some juicy statistics

Data supplied to Covers by Juice Reel, an app sports bettors can utilize to track their plays and that offers analytics and the ability to tail other gamblers, suggests resemblances in between Alberta and Ontario wagerers.

Juice Reel said the average bet size for Alberta-based users was $32, and the average month-to-month handle for January was $5,151. Albertans were likewise using, typically, 1.3 online sportsbooks, and 37% of their bets were parlays.

To compare, the typical bet size for Juice Reel's Ontario-based users was $34, and the typical monthly manage was $8,679. The typical number of books utilized was 2.17, and the parlay percentage was 41%. The median bet size in both jurisdictions was $10.

There are some cautions to the above worth noting. For beginners, this is based upon bets tracked using Juice Reel. Moreover, anybody utilizing a bet-tracking app like Juice Reel is probably a notch or 2 above the most recreational of bettors.

Juice Reel's information likewise includes overseas and provincially controlled books, along with daily dream websites. However, not every single book that Alberta and Ontario gamblers might be utilizing is captured in the numbers.

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

Still, Juice Reel kept in mind the data recommends similarities between Alberta and Ontario. However, the previous has yet to implement an Ontario-like iGaming design and license a few of the operators provide just in Ontario at the minute.

Ontario is also Canada's most populous province, with a population of around 16 million. It's not likely Alberta and its approximately five-million-strong populace will produce the exact same numbers. Still, simply the rough population mathematics alone hints that Alberta could be worth around a third of what Ontario is doing. That would imply around $460 million in iGaming-related income in Year 1.

That would be just to start. There is evidence that the average Albertan could out-gamble the typical Ontarian also.

Anecdotally, you might point to Albertans' extreme love affair with the Edmonton Oilers' "50/50" raffle, which has raised numerous millions of dollars for charity. You might likewise point to research by Statistics Canada revealing the average annual wage in Alberta is approximately $30,000 higher than in Ontario.

It's worth noting, too, that Ontario's iGaming earnings has actually continued to grow given that its launch. While roughly $1.4 billion in total video gaming earnings 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 moment. Those might be used to try 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 gambling net sales (or net profits) for the year ending March 31, 2025, were practically $270 million, up $35 million from the previous .

That income streamed from "5 distinct video gaming experiences" offered by means of the AGLC's Play Alberta platform: gambling establishment, "immediate" games, live dealership games, lottery, and online sports wagering.

The bulk of Play Alberta's online gambling earnings comes from money wagerers lose playing casino-style video games, which represented 73.1% of net sales for the most just recently reported year, or $197.3 million. Sports wagering, meanwhile, created the least for Play Alberta of all of its verticals, producing just shy of $8 million in net sales, or 3% of the total.

This, however, only records part of the existing market for online gaming in Alberta. It's estimated that the bulk of internet-based betting happens with companies that may be managed abroad or outside the province, however not by the province itself.

This so-called "grey" or "black" market is making the lion's share of organization from Alberta's online bettors. The robust and "unregulated" market is probably the primary reason Alberta is introducing a managed iGaming market in the first location - to try to capture that activity.

"Unregulated online betting is currently commonly readily available throughout the province, with some providers running with limited or no gamer defense or social duty steps," the provincial government says. "Based upon current survey information, unregulated operators are estimated to capture approximately 70% of Alberta's overall iGaming market."

This recommends Play Alberta accounts for around 30% of iGaming-related earnings being created in the province. That would also suggest the total size of Alberta's online gambling market is someplace in the ballpark of $900 million in annual 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 overall addressable market, that implies another $630 million is being earned elsewhere.

(The Alberta federal government said just recently that Play Alberta created $275 million in net sales over the past year, which the platform is estimated to catch only around 23% to 32% of the province's total 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 lot of estimating, forecasting, and theorizing, but it's not far off from the "B" word: "billion."

Other data recommends much more upside for Alberta.

A 2024 research study performed by research firm H2 Gambling Capital on behalf of the International Betting Integrity Association suggested there might be hundreds of countless dollars in "uncontrolled" online sports wagering revenue in Alberta. That earnings might be funnelled into Alberta's regulated market.

"If (an Ontario-like iGaming) model was presented from the start of 2025, that could bring around $400m in taxable sports wagering (gross gaming earnings) back onshore throughout 2025-28 on present offshore market forecasts," the report stated. "However, a regulated industrial market would likewise be expected to grow the overall market and the true taxable GGR potential is for that reason anticipated to be greater."

Alberta's forthcoming iGaming market could ultimately generate more than US$ 700M a year in earnings, according to Citizens JMP Securities analyst Jordan Bender.

"If $700M of gaming profits is met, it would represent the eighth-largest video gaming market in North America." pic.twitter.com/E6IJX9DASe

This extra profits for the regulated market would be simply tied to online sports betting. It doesn't even consist of iCasino, which the Play Alberta figures suggest would make up most of iGaming income. Play Alberta's online sportsbook is just supplying a low single-digit share of its profits also.

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

Another 2024 research study, done by experts at financial investment bank Citizens, projection Alberta's iGaming market might ultimately be worth more than US$ 700 million in income 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 produced $713.8 million in gross revenue in 2015.