According to Erik Nyman, President of EveryMatrix Americas, Alberta is very much in their sightline as the company looks to expand their North America footprint.
The company just announced that CasinoEngine, the group’s casino-productivity platform, passed the six-billion-monthly-game-rounds mark and exceeded US$6.5 billion monthly turnover worldwide. EveryMatrix delivers igaming software, content, and services for casino, sports betting, and payment and affiliate management to global operators. Via CasinoEngine, the company is the largest casino aggregator in the industry, with more than 29,000 games from more than 320 suppliers. Aggregation and casino games are big focuses in the Canada market.
EveryMatrix was licensed by the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario to operate as a supplier in the province in 2022.
Alberta is stepping up efforts to roll out an Ontario-style, open, competitive, regulated, igaming market. Currently, Play Alberta is the only place Albertans can gamble legally.
“We’re following [Alberta],” Nyman said. “We have good relations with the lotteries. I think other provinces will follow Ontario and open up. Alberta makes sense to open up for more operators.”
EveryMatrix is not yet live in Ontario, though, still working through approvals and certification of product. “I expect us to be live in Ontario within a month,” Nyman said.
That will mean supporting their U.S. customers, like DraftKings, BetMGM, and Rush Street Interactive, in Ontario, once they get certification for the content. When CasinoEngine is active, players in Ontario will have a lot more product to choose from.
“I still think there is a substantial gray market in Ontario,” Nyman said. According to an Ipsos study conducted in February, 86.4 percent of Ontarians who gambled online over the preceding three months did so on regulated sites, up from 85.3 percent in a similar study conducted in 2023.
“They’ve done a good job in establishing a framework for regulated gaming there,” he said. “In Europe, it hasn’t been as successful. There are still restrictions when it comes to bonusing in Canada, but it’s still more liberal than many European markets. With more capping of free spins, things like that, players will look for more exciting alternatives and incentives by playing more on gray- or black-market sites.”
More competition in Canada markets would benefit everyone, especially those that hold monopolies in Canada.
“You can make a comparison to New Jersey leading up to 2018,” he said. “Most of the people in New Jersey didn’t know they could gamble online. When sports betting came in, FanDuel and DraftKings did massive marketing and boosted igaming revenues, because the population became aware they could gamble online. Canada is more of a mature gambling market anyway, just like Europe before regulation. The more operators you license, the more awareness among players you establish.”
