Sask. residents bet almost $32M in first 2 months of regulated gaming website
CBC
Saskatchewan's new online gaming platform PlayNow.com generated $31.8 million in wagers in its first two months of operation.
The Saskatchewan Indian Gaming Authority (SIGA) was given exclusive rights to establish the province's first regulated website for online casino games and single-event sports betting, and turned to the British Columbia Lottery Corporation (BCLC) to design and launch PlayNow.com in early November.
Figures provided by SIGA indicate the amount of money bet on the website has been growing — from $14.8 million in November to $17 million in December.
SIGA said the site had 8,015 registered users by the end of December.
It means that for every registered user as of Dec. 31, PlayNow.com received an average of $3,967 in wagers over its first two months.
However, SIGA's director of iGaming, Michael Bellegarde, said the total amount wagered also includes winnings that were bet again — as well as promos, bonuses and free bets provided by the platform.
Removing those, PlayNow.com received an average of $461 in deposits (bettors' own money) over its first two months for each registered user as of Dec. 31.
SIGA said the average deposit of registered users' own money over November and December was $67.
Bellegarde said after winnings were paid out, the platform netted $1.6 million over those two months.
"A lot of our players, when it's a small amount, $50, $75, they're just going to keep cycling that money through the system and it just gets bet again," he said.
"Typically, people cash out when they have a substantial win."
Under a 2021 agreement, half of the revenue generated from the website goes to First Nations communities and the other half to the Saskatchewan government.
"We're quite pleased," Bellegarde said. "We weren't exactly sure what to expect, being a new product to the province. So we're very happy."
Of the $31.8 million wagered on the site in November and December, Bellegarde said $30.6 million was from eCasino gambling — while sports betting was responsible for $1.2 million.