Alberta’s regulated online gambling market opens on July 13, 2026, making it the second Canadian province to let private operators compete for players instead of routing them through a single government site. Alberta Gaming, Liquor and Cannabis (AGLC) listed 49 registered operators heading into the launch, including FanDuel, DraftKings, BetMGM, bet365 and Rush Street Interactive’s BetRivers, alongside the government-run PlayAlberta.
The registrant count has climbed fast. An AGLC list in May carried 28 operators and just over 40 brands. By early July the regulator counted 49 registered operators, roughly 30 corporate groups running more than 50 consumer-facing sites. Registration alone does not put a brand live: each operator still has to sign a commercial operating agreement with the new Alberta iGaming Corporation (AiGC) before July 13.
Canada’s split market: provincial sites and offshore licences
Online gambling in Canada runs on two tracks. Under the Criminal Code, provinces have the power to conduct and manage gambling, and for years that meant a single provincial site in each market: PlayAlberta in Alberta, PlayNow in British Columbia, PlayOLG in Ontario, Loto-Québec’s Espacejeux, and Atlantic Lottery in the east. These were government monopolies with no private competition.
The second track is offshore. Dozens of international operators served Canadian players for years from a grey market, taking bets under licences issued elsewhere rather than by a Canadian province. Malta Gaming Authority (MGA), Gibraltar and Curaçao licences were the common route, with the Kahnawake Gaming Commission in Quebec acting as the domestic equivalent. Those operators paid no provincial tax and sat outside provincial consumer-protection rules, but they were widely used. Super Group, the parent of Betway, held what it has called a longstanding grey-market presence in Alberta before registering for the regulated market.
Ontario changed the model in April 2022, launching a competitive market through iGaming Ontario and the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario that brought many grey-market brands onshore under provincial regulation. Alberta is now following the same path. For more on how the country’s provincial and offshore systems fit together, see our breakdown of Canada’s online gambling traffic and licensing.
How Alberta got here
The legal groundwork is recent. The government introduced the iGaming Alberta Act, Bill 48, on March 26, 2025. It passed the legislature on May 8, 2025, and received royal assent on May 15, 2025. The Act created the Alberta iGaming Corporation as a new public body to hold the commercial side of the market.
Implementation followed in early 2026. On January 13, 2026, AGLC published its Standards and Requirements for Internet Gaming and opened registration for operators and suppliers the same day. The province set the launch for July 13, 2026, roughly four years after Ontario opened its own market.
AGLC, AiGC and the PlayAlberta legacy
Alberta split the job between two bodies. AGLC registers and regulates operators and suppliers and sets the standards they must meet. The AiGC is the conduct-and-manage entity: it signs the operating agreements, receives the net gaming proceeds, and passes the province’s share to the treasury. Operators pay a one-time application fee of C$50,000 and an annual fee of C$150,000 per site, and remit a share of net gaming revenue to the AiGC while keeping the majority themselves.
The market’s incumbent is PlayAlberta, which AGLC launched on September 30, 2020, as the province’s only regulated online gambling site. PlayAlberta is operated by NeoPollard Interactive (NPi), a joint venture of Pollard Banknote and NeoGames, running on NPi’s NeoSphere platform under a seven-year agreement that can extend to 12 years. From July 13, PlayAlberta keeps its licence but loses its monopoly, competing head-on with the private operators it used to have the market to itself against.
Who registered
AGLC updates its registrant list every Friday. Grouped by registrant, as the regulator publishes it, the operators cleared for launch include:
- Apollo Entertainment (Captain Cooks Casino, Casino Classic, Golden Tiger Casino, Grand Mondial Casino, Luxury Casino, Yukon Gold Casino, Zodiac Casino)
- Bally’s (Bally Bet, Monopoly Casino & Sportsbook)
- bet365
- Bet99
- BetMGM
- BetNova
- Betty
- BetVictor
- Boyd Gaming’s Pala Interactive (Stardust Casino)
- Caesars (Caesars Sportsbook & Casino, Caesars Palace Online Casino, Horseshoe Online Casino)
- Casino Days
- Casino Time
- DAZN Bet
- Delta Casino
- DraftKings (DraftKings Sportsbook and Casino, Golden Nugget Online Gaming)
- Ellipse Entertainment (LuckyLiner)
- Entain (Sports Interaction, PartyCasino)
- Evoke (888 Casino)
- FanDuel
- Lucky Days
- PENN Entertainment (theScore Bet, theScore Casino, Hollywood Casino)
- PlayAlberta (AGLC)
- PointsBet Canada
- PowerPlay
- Pure Casino Entertainment
- River Cree iGaming
- Rush Street Interactive (BetRivers)
- SkillOnNet (Mega Casino, PlayOjo, SlotsMagic, SpinGenie)
- Soft2Bet (ToonieBet)
- Super Group (Betway, Jackpot City, Royal Vegas, Ruby Fortune, Spin Casino)
- TonyBet
- Vegas Club Casino
The list mixes the largest names in North American betting and iCasino with European entrants, smaller Ontario-market brands, and First Nations operators such as River Cree iGaming and Pure Casino Entertainment. Not every registrant will be live on day one, and the roster keeps moving: Grizzly’s Quest was pulled in June, and Coolbet confirmed it would not take an Alberta licence.
The heavyweights
Six operators carry most of the market weight. FanDuel, owned by Flutter Entertainment, is the largest online betting and gaming brand in North America and enters Alberta off its Ontario base. DraftKings registered two products, its flagship sportsbook and casino and Golden Nugget Online Gaming. BetMGM, the joint venture between MGM Resorts and Entain, extends its Canadian footprint. Bally’s brings Bally Bet and its Monopoly Casino & Sportsbook, and bet365, the UK-based operator, registered in late May.
Rush Street Interactive, which runs BetRivers and leans toward online casino, has been open about its plan. Chief Executive Richard Schwartz told an April 28 earnings call the company would take a deliberate, measured approach to Alberta and did not expect the province to be profitable in 2027, though it should add modest revenue in the back half of that year. How these names rank against each other by scale is set out in our list of the top iGaming operators in the Americas by market cap.
Operators expect the opening to be crowded. PENN Entertainment, which is bringing theScore Bet, theScore Casino and Hollywood Casino, said Alberta will be more competitive on day one than Ontario was.
When we launched in Ontario, it was a lot less competitive. There are a lot more applicants and people in market for Alberta.
That was PENN Chief Technology Officer Aaron LaBerge, who added that the company would lean on theScore’s brand in Canada to break through. PENN has budgeted a loss of roughly C$27m in 2026 tied to the Alberta launch.
Market outlook
Alberta’s core problem is channelization. The province estimates that about 70% of online gambling by Albertans currently happens on unregulated sites, and it wants to flip that, targeting 70% of activity on regulated operators after the first year. Getting there depends on pulling grey-market players onto licensed brands.
The revenue numbers are modest at first and larger later. Service Alberta Minister Dale Nally has said the province expects roughly C$76m in gaming revenue in year one, with the AiGC’s contribution to the treasury rising toward C$109m by 2028-29. Independent estimates put the mature market at more than C$700m in annual operator revenue, and some run higher. Nally has repeatedly downplayed the dollar figure.
Revenue is not even our measure of success. Our measure of success is going to be the feedback. Did they have a fun experience? Was it a safer experience? Was it a responsible experience?
The comparison point is Ontario, the market Alberta is copying. In the fiscal year to March 2025, Ontario’s regulated operators took C$82.7bn in wagers and generated C$2.9bn in gaming revenue from about 50 operators. Alberta has a smaller population, close to 4.9 million, but a higher average income, and it opens with more registered operators than Ontario had on its first day. Whether the province hits its 70% channelization target, and how quickly the largest brands pull players away from offshore sites, will decide whether Alberta’s second-mover market matches the one it is modelled on.
Source: Alberta Gaming, Liquor and Cannabis
