More than four years after online sports betting and iGaming operators went live in Ontario, a second Canadian province will launch more than 45 online gambling platforms on Monday, July 13. After years of planning, Alberta, the fourth biggest province in Canada, will finally have a competitive market.
As of the latest update provided by Alberta Gaming, Liquor, and Cannabis (AGLC) on June 12, more than a dozen sports betting platforms are included among the 47 iGaming platforms that are registered, which will make Alberta a bigger launch in terms of the quantity of sites than any in the U.S. — and potentially bigger than Ontario, which now has 44 registered sportsbooks and online casinos.
Alberta has a population of 5.06 million — putting it in line with U.S. states like South Carolina, Alabama, and Louisiana, but about one-quarter the size of the biggest legal U.S. sports betting states of Florida (21.5 million) and New York (20 million).
At least nine platforms easily recognizable to Americans — BallyBet, bet365, BetMGM, BetRivers, Caesars Sportsbook, DraftKings, FanDuel, PointsBet, and theScoreBet — are among the registrants. Absent is Fanatics Betting & Gaming, which has not yet entered any Canadian market.
Alberta is already home to myriad gray market platforms that regulators will be bringing into the regulated market, including some names that Americans aren’t familiar with. Platforms including Bet99, BetVictor, Betway, and DAZN Bet will join the provincial-run Play Alberta in the regulated market.
Operators, some of whom have been pre-registering patrons since as early as February, will be taxed at 20% of gross revenue, with an additional 2% earmarked for First Nations and 1% earmarked for responsible gaming initiatives.
Safety first
The main goal from launch day forward, Service Alberta Minister Dale Nally told the Edmonton Journal, is safety.
“We know that gambling will never be safe, it will never be responsible,” Nally said. “But there are ways to make it a little safer, and there are ways to make it a little more responsible.”
To that end, Alberta regulators — the AGCL will be working in tandem with Alberta iGaming Corporation (AiGC) — have taken a page out of Ontario’s book, though the legal age to place an online sports bet or play a casino game is 18, as opposed to 19 in Ontario. Many U.S. operators entering Alberta plan to make the minimum age to use their platforms 21.
Ad restrictions at heart of regulation
As in Ontario, sportsbooks won’t be able to use celebrities or athletes to shill for them — other than using them for responsible gambling campaigns — and targeting minors with gambling advertisements will be prohibited. While sportsbooks will be able to offer promotions on their site and, in some cases, via direct contact with registered customers, they will not be able to advertise such deals to the general public.
Regulators also banned any advertising that suggests that skill can play a role in a consumer’s chance of winning, or that any kind of promotion will improve a player’s odds of winning. The promotion of any kind of “excessive play” is banned. Unlike in Ontario, election betting will be prohibited.
Officials in both provinces likely also have an eye on Parliament, where a bill that would further restrict sports betting advertising has been slowly moving. The bill would leave much of the decision making to the Office of the Minister of Canadian Heritage, calling on it to develop a national sports betting advertising framework that would “regulate sports betting advertising in Canada, with a view to restricting the use of such advertising, limiting the number, scope or location — or a combination of these — of the advertisements or to limiting or banning the participation of celebrities and athletes in the promotion of sports betting.”
The bill sponsor suggested that restrictions could include dictating when ads could appear during a broadcast.
S-211 passed the House of Commons on second reading by a vote of 291-28 on April 22. The bill passed out of the Senate Oct. 21, 2025.
The key goal — separate, of course, from generating new millions in new tax revenue — will be to bring Alberta’s active black market into the light. According to the Alberta iGaming Corporation, 70% of current iGaming in Alberta is on illegal platforms. The agency hopes to flip the script and have the regulated market make up 70% of play by the end of its first live year, and 75% by the end of its second year.
