PointsBet CEO: Regulated Alberta market expected by new NFL season
Sam Swanell believes the legalization of the market will arrive around September 2025, once the Alberta government resumes following Justin Trudeau's resignation
PointsBet CEO Sam Swanell has said he expects Alberta’s regulated sports betting and igaming market to launch around the start of the US National Football League (NFL) season in September 2025.
Ontario became the first province to unveil a regulated market in April 2022, while the rest of Canada remains a gray market, littered with province-run operations, including in Alberta.
PlayAlberta, which is owned by the government and operated by the Alberta Gaming, Liquor and Cannabis agency (AGLC), is the only licensed operator in the province.
Hopes of an early 2025 launch were quashed after the Alberta government said in October 2024 that it needed further talks to discuss a workable model.
Alberta’s minster of service and red tape, Dale Nally, told the Canadian Gaming Summit in June 2024 that he was using Ontario’s blueprint to form Alberta’s liberalized market.
Swanell, speaking during an analyst call following the operator’s H1 results, said he expected the market will go live around the time the next NFL season begins in September.
He added that expanding into the province would be very helpful to the operator at very little extra cost, echoing his comments from August last year.
Canadian politics was shaken up late last year after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s resignation, while the Alberta legislature is due to resume on February 25.
Swanell said: “[There’s] not a whole lot of chatter. [We’re] waiting for governments to come back and resume their deliberations and sessions and the like.
“But the expectation is still clearly NFL season this year, so you talk about September this year or around that timeline.
“That’s an important point because Alberta will just add a material amount to the size of that market and it won’t come with a whole lot of additional costs, very little additional costs.
“In terms of helping Canada power towards that EBITDA profitability, that additional province coming online around that time will be very helpful.”
Looking at PointsBet’s latest trading update, total revenue for H1 2024-25, running from June to December 2024, stood at A$124.4m ($77.4m), a rise of 6% year on year (YOY).
Group EBITDA losses shrank YoY by A$10m, or 75%, to A$3.3m, while cash active customers hit an all-time high of 292,600.
For Q2, group sports betting net win amounted to A$63.6m, compared to A$63.5m the previous year.
On the igaming front, net win saw a 2% decline YOY, from A$6.4m to A$6.3m. However, from Q1 to Q2, igaming net win spiked 39% from A$4.6m.
In Canada, sports betting turnover in Q2 and H1 jumped 30% YOY and 40% YOY, to A$97.4m and A$166.7m, respectively.
H1 sports betting net win grew 13% YoY to A$7.2m, despite “unprecedented customer-friendly NFL results in Q2.”
In igaming, turnover in Q2 and H1 also increased by double digits, 20% YOY and 34% YOY to A$310.6m and A$533.9m, respectively.
Net win in Canada across both igaming and sports betting was reported as A$9.4m, down 10% YOY.
The operator’s full-year guidance update stated that revenue is expected to sit between A$260m to A$270m, while EBITDA is anticipated to be in a range of A$11m to A$14m.