Atlantic Lottery sees digital sales surge during pandemic

Canada’s Atlantic Lottery Corp. (ALC) has seen a 500 per cent increase in digital sales during its fiscal year ending March 31, driven by the addition of new digital games and the migration to online play as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

ALC serves the four Atlantic Canadian provinces of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland and Labrador, and has seen online registrations increase by 380 per cent during the pandemic.

This helped to drive a 500 per cent increase in digital sales, with gross gaming revenue climbing by 200 per cent year-on-year.

As a result, ALC’s digital sales per capita have been 69 per cent higher than the National Lottery in the United Kingdom, which also achieved record digital sales in 2020.

“We’ve been growing steadily, year over year,” said Joey Cormier, head of channels for Atlantic Lottery. “Then things went off the charts during the pandemic, which was possible because of the investments we’ve made to improve the player experience.”

“In the first four months of the fiscal year we had nearly as many digital signups as we had in the entire previous year,” Cormier added. “At the beginning of the pandemic, we adjusted our advertising to remind customers, especially during the lockdown period, that playing at home was a safe alternative at the time.”

ALC is also poised to benefit from the possible legalisation of single-event sports betting in Canada and already provides parlay wagering, with the corporation predicting that it can add single-event betting to its platform quickly through a minor change.

It is also expanding its retail offering with the addition of self-serve terminals and is supporting retailers with an affiliate programme that pays commission on all products purchased by a referred player on alc.ca for a period of six months.