PENN Entertainment Bets $20M on Alberta as Canada Drives Digital Profitability Push

Penn Entertainment Inc. Chief Executive Officer and President Jay Snowden said the company has invested $20 million in Alberta, looking to build on its success in Ontario and move its digital business toward profitability.

“With it being a more competitive starting gate in Alberta, we needed to be a little bit more aggressive in our spend per capita, and we’re feeling good about that decision so far,” he said.

Speaking to investors on Aug. 6 after PENN reported its second-quarter financial results, Snowden and Aaron LaBerge, PENN’s Chief Technology Officer and Head of Interactive, highlighted progress from what the company earlier this year described as a more “disciplined approach” to managing its interactive business after poor performance in the online space.

PENN Bets Big on Alberta

PENN’s digital business remains unprofitable, but the losses have narrowed dramatically. The company reported an adjusted EBITDA loss of US$9.5 million in Q2 2026, compared with a loss of US$62 million in Q2 2025. 

Improvements in online casino performance, greater cost discipline, and momentum in Ontario, driven by stronger sports betting revenue and cross-selling bettors into iCasino, were the drivers. 

Alberta’s competitive, regulated market launched July 13. Penn went live with three sites that day – Hollywood Casino, theScore Casino and theScore Bet. There are now 27 digital and sports betting platforms taking wagers in the province. Fifty operators successfully registered in Alberta when the market launched, so more are expected to go live with platforms before the end of 2026.

Digital Losses Narrow Sharply

“While still early, we are encouraged by our Alberta user and handle volume on a per capita basis and believe our exclusive strategic partnership in Canada with the Toronto Blue Jays will complement the strength of theScore Bet brand there,” said Snowden.

During the earnings call, Snowden discussed the size of its presence in Ontario iGaming, which launched in April 2022. Like with Alberta, Penn went live with theScore Bet when the market launched.

While the company doesn’t provide a financial breakdown by jurisdiction, Snowden revealed that Ontario is now its largest online sports betting (OSB) and digital casino market.

Ontario Becomes Top OSB Market

“I would tell you it is our number one largest market both on the OSB side, and I would say it’s right there with Pennsylvania on iGaming,” he said. “But it is by a good margin our number one market for OSB.

“You can back into how we do in Pennsylvania and assume OSB is probably closer to 2x or 2.5x [more revenue than] what we do in Pennsylvania and iGaming would be very similar.”

PENN operates online sports betting in 20 U.S. states and online casino gaming in four.

World Cup Boosts Engagement

Snowden said the company was aided by “solid World Cup engagement and cross-sell of the reactivated World Cup OSB user base into iCasino.”

Approximately 70% of its sportsbook users placed a World Cup wager, he added, with approximately 45% of those World Cup bettors placing a soccer wager for the first time.

LaBerge said the operating framework in Alberta suggests the company is in a good position to capture a similar level of market share to that it has in Ontario.

“Our product has never been better,” he said. “We’re going into a competitive market, but we’re spending aggressively relative to what we did in Ontario. And early results, from a handle perspective, even though it’s a slow sports calendar, are very encouraging. We anticipate being very aggressive, and we hope to have the same or similar market share to what we enjoy in Ontario.”

Canada Key to Profitability

While iGaming Ontario releases monthly financial results, it doesn’t break them down by operator. In June, sports betting handle in Ontario exceeded $1 billion as bettors poured money into the World Cup. June marked the eighth time in the past 12 months that monthly sports betting handle crossed the $1 billion threshold.

There are currently 48 licensed operators and 82 active gaming websites, not including the government-run Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation (OLG) platform.

According to reporting by NEXT.io, based on Snowden’s comments during the earnings call, sports betting revenue in Ontario was somewhere between $11.6 million and $14.5 million in Q2 2026.

Q3 Loss Likely

“In terms of profitability through the end of the year, it’s clearly going to be casino- and Canada-driven,” said Snowden. “Those are our big focuses, then operating profitably in OSB states and making sure that we’re focused on high-value customers and retaining the ones that we have today that are of high value.”

The $20 million investment in Alberta’s market launch will likely lead to a large quarterly loss for the company in Q3, but management anticipates a turnaround in Q4 and moving forward, given the signals they are seeing from Alberta so far and Ontario’s continued strength.