SIGA Deploys Environics Data to Map Omnichannel Behaviors Among Saskatchewan Players

Saskatchewan Indian Gaming Authority (SIGA) owns seven First Nations casinos and operates an igaming platform. The organization hired Environics Analytics to examine convergences and divergences among its land-based, online, and omnichannel players. Vice President of Client Strategy Sophie Marai and SIGA Director of Marketing Kacey Pambrun presented the resulting findings at a Global Gaming Expo panel titled “From Casino Floor to Online Play: Using Data to Understand and Unlock Omnichannel Growth.”

Research Findings on Player Segments and Market Dynamics

Marai framed the core issue as “What’s the size of the prize?” She reported that Millennials now outpace Boomers, while Gen Z is a completely different gamer that is completely agnostic online and lacks brand loyalty. Gen Z wants as frictionless an experience as possible. Canadians are adopting artificial intelligence at an 82 percent clip, outpacing the rest of the world, yet 65 percent of online play goes to unregulated sites.

Saskatchewan has roughly 929,700 residents, projected to push past one million over the next decade. The market is diversifying with an influx of Filipinos, Southeast Asians, and Black people. Marai noted that a significant amount of the customer base is driven by the loyalty core, with 63 percent already engaged and an opportunity gap remaining. Only six percent of the overall Saskatchewan population has engaged with igaming. “That’s a lot of runway,” Marai observed.

Forty-one percent of those surveyed were already engaged core players. One target segment spends CAD$2,800 a year on gambling but shows only a 5.2 percent SIGA penetration rate. Players who over-indexed for both land-based and digital play were 46 percent captured by SIGA. Land-based-only players represented four percent of the SIGA customer base. Media buys should concentrate on the metro areas of Saskatoon and Regina, especially younger demographics.

Strategic Priorities for Digital Alignment and Growth

Pambrun stated that SIGA knows its land-based customer very well but could not assume a digital overlap or shared behaviors. The research was intended to deliver something actionable for branding and media buys. The bigger objective was the next phase of growth: developing a digital strategy congruent with SIGA’s seven brick-and-mortar casinos. SIGA’s online operations lack the advantage of the SIGA brand.

Pambrun said there is a significant opportunity outside the established customer base that has many different iterations requiring differing strategies. Acquisition cannot simply mean spending more money. The research data is not just telling something interesting about the customer but is changing what SIGA already does. One cannot assume that one message will resonate across the board. Open communication within SIGA’s branches is essential.

When asked whether the juice is worth the squeeze for converting Gen Z from click to brick, Marai replied that it is, because one has to understand the squeeze in the first place to make the decision of its worth. As reported by CDC Gaming, the panel underscored that understanding where customers sit across land-based, digital, and omnichannel behavior drives effective prioritization.

Where the Opportunity Gap Persists

SIGA’s data exercise reveals concrete segments that remain beyond current reach, particularly those already spending in the broader market but showing low penetration with regulated tribal offerings. Operators facing similar channel divides must therefore isolate which cohorts deliver incremental value rather than spread resources uniformly. The findings supply a factual basis for concentrating acquisition where unregulated volume is highest and brand presence is weakest, turning demographic runway into measurable capture over the next decade of provincial population growth.

Reporting: CDC Gaming

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