BetMGM had plenty to draw upon when it went live on day one of Alberta’s regulated iGaming market on July 13, 2026. Three months later, executives say the province is already exceeding their expectations.
“Our ambition for Alberta is a podium position,” BetMGM Chief Revenue Officer Matt Prevost told Canadian Gaming Business in an interview. “On a scale basis, given it’s about one-third of the population, it’s been a much faster adoption than Ontario.”
CEO Adam Greenblatt and CFO Gary Deutsch backed up those comments on an earnings call on Tuesday, Oct. 13.
“In Alberta, we’re seeing attractive ROIs and per-player metrics, with several KPIs trending better than those post-Ontario’s launch,” Greenblatt told investors and analysts.
The biggest tangible effect of the Alberta launch so far has been on customer acquisition, said Deutsch.
“From an acquisition standpoint, about 20% of the new players we acquired in Q3 were from Alberta, so we have had a really good burst out of the gates there,” added the CFO.
“We modeled our own forecast for Alberta to mimic the trajectory takeoff that we had in Ontario a few years back. We have ramped up faster and higher than that trajectory, so that is positive. We are exceeding our daily targets. We’re all good there.”
Executives were not drawn into speculating about the longer-term impact that Alberta may create for BetMGM. But it’s evident already, after just one quarter, that the launch is paying dividends.
BetMGM’s Alberta business is new, but roots are deep
Although BetMGM’s sportsbook and casino platform is new to Alberta customers, the brand is not.
A leading operator in Ontario’s regulated market and by some measures the third-largest iGaming platform by revenue share in the U.S., BetMGM (like many other operators) already had a visible presence in Alberta prior to July 13 due to factors such as national advertising aired by broadcasters around live sports events.
It also counts Wayne Gretzky and Connor McDavid, two of the greatest Canadian hockey players of all time and Edmonton Oilers captains past and present, among its leading brand ambassadors. Gretzky featured prominently on stage with Greenblatt during the Global Gaming Expo (G2E) in Las Vegas on Sept. 29, which is where Canadian Gaming Business spoke with both Prevost and BetMGM VP of Canada Scott Woodgate.
“The goal in Alberta is to carry the leadership position that we have in Ontario,” said Woodgate, referencing past comments from Greenblatt in which the CEO estimated that BetMGM is the No. 1 operator in Ontario in terms of online casino market share.
Like Ontario, Alberta had what Woodgate described as “a raging grey market” before it began licensing and regulating online gambling in April 2022. Some operators offered sports betting and/or casino gaming to residents before the doors opened. Others like BetMGM did not.
The net effect of the pre-existing grey market is that Alberta offers a user base that knows what it’s talking about and that was ready to dive straight in on day one.
“For the most part, Alberta is a really gaming-savvy population,” said Prevost. “This is not new for them.”
Woodgate added that every licensed operator in Ontario had a steep learning curve in that province, particularly those that weren’t there already. Thanks to four-and-a-half years of Ontario operations, Alberta is less of a mystery.
“For us, we realized very early that Ontario gamblers were very savvy going in,” Woodgate explained. “You didn’t have to educate them on what a parlay was. They knew because of the raging grey market. We’re finding the same thing in Alberta.”
Online casino drives BetMGM forward
In Ontario, online casino is the primary revenue driver for operators. Around 85% of both total handle and gross gaming revenue in the province’s market comes via iCasino on a month-to-month basis. Whether the same pattern will emerge in Alberta remains to be seen.
If it does, BetMGM executives feel they have pole position to capitalize.
Approximately 70% of BetMGM’s business comes from online casino, per Greenblatt. The operator has pursued a strategy that blends games built around the intellectual property rights of popular TV and movie brands, a robust live dealer offering through its co-parent MGM Resorts International’s partnership with Playtech, and sports-tied slot games.
On the call, the CEO referenced BetMGM’s exclusive ‘Game of Thrones‘ content, which became the operator’s most successful game launch of all time in Ontario and Alberta. Prevost described it to Canadian Gaming Business as “an absolute rocket ship” that further enhanced an online casino IP slate that already included the likes of:
- ‘Family Feud‘ and ‘The Price is Right‘
- ‘Friends‘
- ‘Survivor‘
- ‘The Wizard of Oz‘
- Icons such as Elvis Presley and Marilyn Monroe
“MGM started as a studio in the world of entertainment long before it was a casino,” said Prevost. “It’s endemic to our brand, and it’s a place where we can and do lead.”
On Tuesday, Greenblatt also noted the launch of several sports-branded casino games ahead of the NFL season, including content made possible via BetMGM’s new multi-year partnership with the Minnesota Vikings, “which we know will be particularly enjoyed by our Canadian players in Ontario and Alberta.”
“At BetMGM, we own the category of entertainment,” said Greenblatt.
BetMGM already seeing gains from Alberta iCasino
Deutsch suggested that BetMGM is already seeing the effect of that online casino strategy in Alberta. He said that while the early months of the province had a negligible impact on the operator’s top-line revenue, Alberta created approximately two percentage points of growth impact on the online casino side of the business.
Prevost noted that operators like BetMGM only got a sense of how big the Ontario market could be as they began to hit maturity in the province.
“I think that opened everyone’s eyes to what Canada can become,” he told Canadian Gaming Business. “And, so, in Alberta, no one’s guessing anymore about how big this market is.”
BetMGM maintains guidance as EBITDA doubles
Greenblatt and Deutsch spoke on Tuesday after BetMGM issued a Q3 2026 earnings report that showed small increases in revenue, while adjusted EBITDA more than doubled year over year.
The MGM Resorts and Entain joint venture reported that:
- Net revenue increased 7% year over year to US$710m
- Adjusted EBITDA jumped 112% to US$86m
- Online casino net revenue grew 6% to US$483m
- Online sports betting net revenue climbed 7% to US$216m
Greenblatt stated that the Q3 performance keeps BetMGM on track to deliver its previously projected full-year 2026 guidance of between US$2.9bn and US$3.1bn in revenue and adjusted EBITDA of between US$300m and US$350m, albeit toward the lower end of those ranges.
“Consistent with our strategy, we’ve remained nimble and disciplined, leaning into BetMGM’s strengths and where we can achieve the most attractive returns,” Greenblatt added. “This has seen us increase our focus on iGaming, multi-product states, Nevada, and most recently Alberta, as well as higher-value, higher-staking players, particularly in online sports betting, while also reducing investment in certain lower-return OSB-only markets.
“This more targeted approach is working.”
