Alberta opening its doors to commercial online gaming operators seems an inevitability, even if the timeline is uncertain. Whenever the province does launch a regulated iGaming and sports betting market, will BetMGM want to be there? You bet it will.

“We’re very interested,” BetMGM’s VP of Canada, Scott Woodgate, told Canadian Gaming Business in an interview. “We’re eager to take what we’ve learned in Ontario and then build on our leadership position in Canada.

“At the same time, we’re very much aware that Alberta has a distinct sports and gaming culture. We look forward to meeting the demands of the Alberta customers. It’s a unique market. We also see the potential for Alberta to become a key omni-channel market for us.”

BetMGM has grown fond of the Canadian market. Already a renowned name in sports betting and online casino before Ontario’s market opened in April 2022, the joint venture between MGM Resorts and Entain has left a deep footprint in Ontario’s lucrative landscape.

It’s tough to assess exactly how deep, given that iGaming Ontario does not break down revenue numbers by operator. BetMGM’s status, though, is clear. A report from Eilers and Krejcik this summer pegged BetMGM’s Ontario market share across both online sports betting and online casino at around 22%, a number that BetMGM CEO Adam Greenblatt himself cited at SBC Summit North America in May.

Woodgate did not put digits on it to CGB, but he says BetMGM executives are “very happy with our position” in the province and how the brand has cemented itself in the minds of Canadians.

Alberta poses a unique challenge

But BetMGM, like all Ontario operators, know that Alberta poses a different challenge with unique conditions.

With so many specifics around what Alberta’s market could look like still unconfirmed, including key parameters such as the number of operators and the tax rate, it’s too early to get too deep into the weeds.

However, Minister Dale Nally and other advocates for an open Alberta market have championed certain aspects of the province as advantageous for any gaming companies who may be eyeing the province with interest. Woodgate certainly sees some favourable conditions in Wild Rose Country.

“We see the potential for Alberta to become a key omni-channel market for us.”

“Obviously, there’s a lot we don’t know in Alberta at this point about the details behind regulation in the province,” he added. “But I will say that Alberta has a very mature land-based gaming market, more so than a lot of jurisdictions. It has a population that’s younger than most provinces, it’s got a different culture and a different makeup of heritages. So it follows that it won’t simply be a copy and paste from Ontario.”

When it comes to a gaming tax, advocates have urged the Alberta government to fall at least roughly in line with Ontario’s 20% rate, arguing that anything significantly higher could be a barrier of entry for operators.

Would that be the case for BetMGM if Alberta were, hypothetically, to land above Ontario’s rate? Woodgate calls that “a fascinating question” given the current presence of the grey market.

“The goal of any regulated market is to first and foremost protect consumers by making grey-market providers or whatever you want to call them less appealing and less prominent,” he tells CGB. “The best way to do that is to make sure the regulated market is highly competitive and attracts a diverse range of operators. The key element to strong competition is an attractive tax rate. Looking at Ontario, Alberta has a template to work from, should they choose to use it. That should allow them to move forward with a strong degree of confidence while at the same time adapting things for the Alberta market’s different consumer preferences.”

BetMGM has advantage of early Alberta powerplay

Above all, whatever the market conditions, Woodgate stresses that BetMGM will be firmly focused on creating a service that appeals to the people of Alberta and reflects what they want from an operator.

There may not be many operators who are better placed to do that, because, at face value, it’s fair to say that BetMGM knows a thing or two about Alberta already.

“We’ve obviously gotten into business with a couple of guys from Alberta,” Woodgate added. “So, we see the appeal.”

Woodgate was referencing BetMGM’s partnerships with two of the most famous Canadian athletes ever to emerge from Alberta, hockey’s ‘Great One’ Wayne Gretzky and contemporary leading light Connor McDavid.

Gretzky has been a BetMGM ambassador for more than three years since signing a deal in June 2021. McDavid came on board as BetMGM’s first active professional major-league athlete ambassador the following year. In Ontario, the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario’s advertising standards strictly limit the duo’s use in marketing to responsible gambling-focused commercials. The stance Alberta opts to take will be of keen interest to all observers.

Having two of Alberta’s most famous sons on board means BetMGM started tuning into Alberta years ago.

“It’s a dynamic province,” notes Woodgate. “It’s a good-sized market. There are strong incomes, a young and growing population. It’s a great hockey market. It checks a lot of boxes.”

“We’ve gotten into business with a couple of guys from Alberta, so we see the appeal. It’s a great hockey market.”

Just as it was in Ontario when the regulated market opened in April 2022, BetMGM will be a well-known entity whenever Alberta opens its doors. Given the visibility that two years of regulated market saturation in Ontario and factors such as advertising spillover have offered to multiple operators, can there truly be such a thing as “first-mover advantage” in Alberta, in the typical sense?

“We didn’t really know what to expect in Ontario,” Woodgate acknowledged. “I think one of the things we learned is that the real competition starts once the regulated market is up and running. Anything that happens before gets left in the dust pretty quickly once the curtain rises.

“But we fully realize that, as in Ontario, every operator is going to be working fairly diligently to make sure they’re ready for when Minister Nally fires the starting gun. We’ll be no exception.”