Entain confirmed on 27 July that all three of its consumer brands are now live in Alberta, completing the group’s entry into Canada’s second regulated iGaming market two weeks after it opened.
Sports Interaction and Party Casino started taking bets in the province on 23 July. They joined BetMGM, the joint venture Entain operates with MGM Resorts, which went live on 13 July when the market launched. The pair were the 23rd and 24th sites to go live in Alberta, taking the province from 22 platforms on day one to two dozen inside a fortnight.
An Entain spokesperson framed the launch as an extension of the group’s Ontario position:
“Alberta represents an exciting next step for regulated online gaming in Canada. Ontario demonstrated the benefits of a well-regulated, competitive market, and Alberta has the foundations to build on that success. With Sports Interaction, BetMGM and Party Casino, we are bringing a compelling, responsible and high-quality offering to players. We understand what customers expect and are ready to deliver.”
How Alberta’s market is structured
Two bodies stand between an operator and an Alberta launch. Alberta Gaming, Liquor and Cannabis (AGLC) registers and regulates market participants. The Alberta iGaming Corporation (AiGC) handles commercial onboarding and holds the operator agreements. Companies must clear both, which explains the gap between the 50-plus sites AGLC has registered and the two dozen actually taking bets.
On the commercial terms, operators retain 80% of net iGaming revenue and the province keeps 20%. Before that split is calculated, 3% of gross gaming revenue is allocated to First Nations and social responsibility funding. The provincial government has estimated the regulated market could generate around CAD $100m a year in revenue.
The number that will define whether Alberta works is channelization. AiGC has set a target of 70% in year one and 75% by year two. Government estimates put roughly 70% of Albertans’ prior online gambling activity with offshore sites, so the entire model depends on moving players who were already betting somewhere else.
Sports Interaction arrives with an existing Alberta book
Sports Interaction is one of the oldest real-money gaming brands in Canada. It launched in 1997 under Mohawk Online Limited, a company of the Mohawk Council of Kahnawà:ke, and operated nationally under a Kahnawake Gaming Commission licence. Entain subsidiary Avid Gaming bought the brand for around $300m in 2022, the year Ontario opened Canada’s first commercial iGaming market. The Mohawk Council ended its partnership with Avid in late 2024, citing the changed regulatory landscape and economic reasons, leaving Entain with full ownership of the brand, its Ontario licence and its customer database.
Both Sports Interaction and Party Casino served Alberta players from the grey market before regulation. The July launch is therefore a conversion of an existing customer base rather than a standing start, which is precisely the mechanic AiGC’s channelization targets rely on.
Shir Magen, Entain’s Head of Canada, pointed to that local footing:
“We understand this market and its customers. We design our product, offering, and customer experience with intention and on-the-ground knowledge. Entain’s global scale, technology, and industry-leading player protection capabilities allow us to deliver a premium experience tailored specifically for Albertans.”
A crowded field from day one
Entain is one of several multi-brand groups in the province. Caesars operates three sites, PENN Entertainment three, and DraftKings two. bet365, FanDuel, BetRivers, BetVictor, DAZN Bet and TonyBet are also live. Around half of AGLC’s registrants launched within the first 11 days of the market opening, which is an unusually fast build-out for a new jurisdiction and leaves little room for a slow start.
Alberta lands in a difficult year for Entain
The rollout arrives during a heavy stretch for the group. Entain confirmed around 500 job cuts in July, roughly 2% of its global workforce, after the UK remote gaming duty rose from 21% to 40% in April. In June it agreed to sell 20% of its Central and Eastern European business to EMMA Capital for about €425m as the first step in a phased exit, and cut FY26 online EBITDA margin guidance to a range of 21% to 22% from 23% to 24%.
Against that, a newly regulated market where Entain holds three brands and an incumbent player database is one of the cleaner growth lines in the portfolio.
What to watch
BetMGM publishes its Q2 update on 28 July and Entain reports half-year results on 13 August, giving management two near-term opportunities to put figures, or at least commentary, against the Canadian expansion. The longer test is whether Alberta hits its channelization targets in a province where the offshore option never disappeared, and whether Entain’s grey-market inheritance converts into regulated revenue or simply into acquisition costs for players it thought it already had.
Source: Entain
