Twenty-eight online gaming operators, including eight well-known sports betting providers, are registered for the Alberta market, according to an update from the Alberta Liquor and Gaming Commission.
When Alberta becomes the second Canadian province to go live with online casino and sports betting July 13, BallyBet, BetMGM, BetRivers, Caesars Sportsbook, DraftKings, FanDuel, PointsBet-Canada, and theScore Bet will be among the available platforms. Fanatics Betting & Gaming is not on the list provided Friday, but that platform is also not live in Ontario.
Consumers will also be able to continue wagering on the state-run PlayAlberta, and there could be significantly more than eight online sports betting platforms as the regulator plans to transition gray market operators into the regulated market.
With regard to back-end providers, IGT and Light and Wonder are among the 22 “Critical Gaming Service Providers” that had registered as of May 1.
The only other province in Canada with regulated online sports betting is Ontario, which launched in April 2022 and has more than 30 licensed sportsbooks. Alberta’s population is about one-third the size of Ontario’s, and its biggest city is Calgary, the third-largest city in Canada and home to the NHL Calgary Flames and the CFL Calgary Stampede.
Launch will take place in time for the last week of the World Cup, prior to Week 7 of the CFL season. The World Cup will be held at venues across Canada, Mexico, and the United States. The final is scheduled for July 19 at New York’s MetLife Stadium. For football fans, the first Stampede game to bet on will be the July 18 matchup against the Montreal Alouettes.
Alberta’s provincial government projects that online gambling will net Alberta CAD $100 million in annual tax revenue. Many operators are already taking signups, including BetRivers, Caesars Sportsbook, DraftKings, and theScore Bet. Operators can also advertise online via Google ads after a change in policy announced Monday.
Kambi expanding in Canada
Late last week, Kambi announced that it has been selected to power a shared sportsbook for the Atlantic Lottery and British Columbia Lottery Corporation (BCLC). The Atlantic Lottery serves New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island, and the BCLC serves British Columbia, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan.
All of the provinces named will offer the government-owned PROLINE-branded platforms, and none of the provinces have legalized an open, competitive market for sports betting. Kambi is also a supplier for Ontario’s PROLINE platform and has plans to launch Alberta’s.
In other news from Ontario, the province is poised to debut its centralized self-exclusion program, Gaming News Canada reports. Using the new BetGuard platform, consumers will be able to self-exclude from all forms of online gambling in the same place. Since launch in April 2022, Ontario has not had a consolidated self-exclusion option.
