CALGARY, Alta. – I wasn’t gonna win, the guy next to me probably wasn’t gonna win, and the guy next to him probably wasn’t gonna win either, but we all took a shot anyway.
I’m referring, of course, to the 50/50 draw at Thursday's Calgary Stampeders game, which I definitely didn’t win.
- Strong participation in Alberta sports 50/50 draws, including multi-million dollar jackpots at Edmonton Oilers games, could be an indication of the province's big appetite for gambling.
- Alberta's iGaming minister says the province's younger workforce, higher wages, and disposable income make it an attractive market for sports betting and online casino operators.
- With Alberta's competitive regulated iGaming market launching on July 13, the government is aiming to shift players from unregulated sites to dozens of newly approved operators.
While I knew that I was bound to lose, I still had hope, and bought $50 worth of “chances” during the halftime of the CFL game, which ended up being a 58-36 romp for the home team.
Clearly, many others felt lucky, too. According to the draw’s website, a total of $109,635 in 50/50 tickets were purchased for the contest, $54,817.50 of which will go to the winner, who, again, was not me.
This rabbit just wanted a better view of the Stamps touchdown 😂🐇#CFLGameday pic.twitter.com/mPBeiG4kUc
— TSN (@TSN_Sports) July 3, 2026
It was a good-sized prize, but not the biggest they’ve seen at McMahon Stadium. The jackpot for the Stamps’ June 20 game was $123,490, and since it was a 60/40 draw that night, the winner (“Brandon B”) took home $74,094.
And that is still arguably smaller potatoes in the grand scheme of the Alberta 50/50 draw. The Edmonton Oilers’ 50/50 at the end of April had a jackpot of nearly $6.5 million and a prize to the winner of more than $3.2 million.
🚨 It’s Draw Day! 🚨
— Oilers Foundation (@Oil_Foundation) June 22, 2026
There’s just under 2 hours left to get your tickets & the jackpot is closing in on $3M!
Head to https://t.co/RB9s6fvAIT for your chance to become Alberta’s next millionaire. 💰
So why am I telling you all of this? Because some believe the popularity of 50/50 draws at Alberta sporting events is an indication of the big appetite for gambling in the Western Canadian province.
And don’t just take my word for it, take that of Dale Nally, who is Alberta’s de facto iGaming minister, the politician in charge of the province’s sweeping online gambling reforms. At the SBC Summit Canada conference in Toronto in May, Nally pointed to the Oilers’ 50/50 draws as proof of Alberta’s love affair with gambling.
“Albertans like to gamble,” Nally said during a fireside chat. “Responsibly, but we like to gamble. And you only need to see the success of our 50/50 at Edmonton Oilers games. I couldn’t even tell you the biggest 50/50, but it's in the millions, just because Albertans love to gamble.”
The minister also made the case for why the province’s demographics will be a good fit for operators.
“We're hardworking, we're industrial, we're entrepreneurial,” he said. “Our workforce is younger than workforces in the rest of Canada because of our oil and gas industry. It attracts younger people from across the country to come to Alberta. So our workforce is younger, we have lower taxes, and we have higher wages than the rest of the country. That means more disposable income.”
The incoming Alberta sports betting and iGaming operators are likely well-aware of this.
As of June 26, there were 47 apps and sites registered with the Alberta Gaming, Liquor, and Cannabis Commission (AGLC), the province’s iGaming regulator. This means there could be more than 40 new provincially regulated iGaming options available to Albertans on July 13, the day the province launches its new regulated market for online gambling.
That is the initiative Nally has been working on for years now, taking Alberta from one provincially regulated iGaming operator, the AGLC’s Play Alberta, to many. It’s a similar strategy to the one employed in Ontario, which launched its own competitive iGaming market in 2022 that now has more than 45 operators and 80 licensed sites.
Ontario is the example that Alberta is largely following with its iGaming framework. And, from the looks of things, many of those Ontario brands will be offering online sports betting and casino games in Alberta as well come July 13.
Guesstimating the market
One of those will still be Play Alberta, the online sportsbook and casino that Albertans have had available to them since 2020. The iGaming platform generated around $275 million in net sales for the year that ended March 31, 2025.
However, much more online gambling may be happening with operators that are not Play Alberta. The provincial government believes around 70% of all online gambling in the province could currently be happening with “unregulated” operators, and it wants to reverse that trend.
A rough estimate, then, for Alberta’s total iGaming market may be north of $900 million in revenue, based on that channelization rate and Play Alberta’s sales figures. U.S. investment bank Citizens estimated back in 2024 that Alberta could generate around that in annual iGaming revenue.
So all of the above suggests that Alberta could be a significant market for iGaming operators. And those indicators should probably include Albertans’ love of the 50/50 draw.
“We have reduced red tape, we’ve got a business-friendly environment, and we’ve got low corporate taxes,” Nally said in May. “It doesn’t get any better than that. So if you like your experience in Ontario, you’re going to love your experience in Alberta, so please come.”
