Oilers accused of pocketing majority of money designated for charity.

A rather unflattering report has come out regarding the Oilers Entertainment Group and their charitable efforts through the Edmonton Oilers Community Foundation.

This past week, Brett McKay of the Investigative Journalism Foundation provided a deep dive into the highly popular 50/50 charity raffle that the Oilers have been running, specifically as it pertains to the last several years of that raffle's operations.

According to documents obtained by McKay, between 2021 and 2024 the Edmonton Oilers Community Foundation paid out a whopping $81 million in license and rights fees to Win50, the company that runs the raffle. Win50 is a subsidiary of the Oilers Entertainment Group, calling into question where the money that is meant to be designated for charity is really going.

According to McKay after the Oilers raised over $102 million during the Oilers 2024 Stanley Cup run only $20 million of that money, representing under 20 percent, was available to go to a charitable cause. The rest was spent on jackpots, fees and administrative costs.

Kate Bahen, managing director of Charity Intelligence Canada, a charity watchdog, called the practice shocking.

"I think this is shocking," said Bahen as per McKay. "I think Canadians are shocked when they hear those numbers and who the money is paid to."

"It's not 50/50. It's 50 per cent to the winner, 27.7 per cent to the private company, Win50, and the charity at the end of the day gets around 20 per cent," she added.

Also reflecting poorly on the Oilers is the fact that other Canadian hockey teams have a far larger portion of their own lottery ticket proceeds available for charity. In 2024 the Maple Leafs' MLSE Foundation had 42.2% available for charitable activities, the Montreal Canadiens Children's Foundation came in at 36.9% and the Winnipeg Jets' True North Youth Foundation at 34.8%.

OEG’s vice-president of communications and gaming, Tim Shipton declined to share a detailed breakdown of expenses and also declined to say what Win50's profit was, but did offer comment on the controversial investigation.

"The market has become over-saturated with 50/50 raffles and competition is stiff," said Shipton. "Win50 expends significant costs and resources to ensure the continued success of the EOCF 50/50, including covering the cost of multi-million-dollar expenses to third parties for line items such as prizing (vehicles, cash, experiences, etc.), television and radio commercials, marketing and promotion, digital advertising, a greatly expanded and enhanced raffle technology platform, increased staffing, customer service, compliance requirements and other costs — many of which have been front-end loaded as we moved online and into a much larger addressable market."

Shipton claims that a more detailed breakdown of expenses cannot be provided due to competitive reasons.

Bahen appears to believe that the high expectations of Canadians when it comes to charities might not jive with these recent revelations.

"The public has trust in our regulator and in proper compliance, particularly by charities," said Bahen. "I think Canadians have very high expectations of charities, and when you say that you're raising money for charity, it needs to be very clear who's benefiting from that."

You can hear McKay's summary of his investigative reporting in the short clip below:

What do you think of all this? Should the Oilers Entertainment Group and Edmonton Oilers Community Foundation be required to be more transparent? Should a higher portion of the revenue be going to charity? Let me know your thoughts in the comments.