It’s been pretty quiet on the Western Canadian front over the past few months, yet online sports betting and internet casino gambling operators are expecting things to pick up later this year with a rollout of a competitive iGaming market in Alberta.
BetMGM, for instance, said this month in an investor presentation that they anticipate a launch in Alberta “in 2025.”
That prediction was preceded by another from Sam Swanell, the CEO of PointsBet, which has exited the U.S. market but maintained its presence in another Canadian province, Ontario.
Like BetMGM, PointsBet is eyeing a launch in Alberta later this year, although Swanell noted there has not been much “chatter” of late as they await the return of lawmakers to provincial legislatures.
“But the expectation is still clearly NFL season this year,” Swanell said during a call for analysts and investors near the end of January. “So you talk about September this year, or around that timeline.”
Couldn't help but notice in BetMGM's latest business update that they are anticipating a sports betting-only launch in Missouri and an online sports betting + iGaming launch in Alberta later this year (bottom bullet point). Still waiting on start dates for both. pic.twitter.com/97MjhnPnu5
— Geoff Zochodne (@GeoffZochodne) February 4, 2025
The comments suggest some in the industry are feeling bullish – at least publicly – about Alberta granting them access to Canada’s fourth-most populous province before the end of this year.
That would put an Oregon-sized market for online sports betting and casino gaming in play for BetMGM, PointsBet, and anyone else hoping to gain entry, such as DraftKings or FanDuel.
First, though, Alberta has work to do.
The bill's coming due
Despite the expectations of iGaming operators, the provincial government has yet to publicly announce a date for when its regulated market may open.
While the impression has been given multiple times that Alberta will launch something similar to Ontario – the only Canadian province that authorizes private-sector operators to offer online sports betting and iGaming within its borders – when exactly that will happen remains a mystery.
There were hopes for a 2024 launch, but Service Alberta and Red Tape Reduction Minister Dale Nally told Covers last year that the provincial government plans to outline its iGaming strategy in “enabling” legislation that has yet to be introduced. The Alberta legislature's next session is scheduled to start later this month, so iGaming-related legislation must wait until then.
After a bill is introduced and passed, there would still need to be regulations put in place, Nally said. Even so, while there is no guarantee, a 2025 launch remains possible.
“At the end of the day, I don’t know the date,” Nally told Covers last October. “What I can commit to is we’re going to put the legislation in the spring. And once we do the spring legislation, then we’ll write the regulation. So anytime thereafter. In fairness, I can’t tell you it’s going to be August, September, October, November, but I’m pretty confident that we’re going to be able to say 2025 we’ll be able to offer a legal, regulated space for iGaming.”
In the meantime, the government-owned Alberta Gaming, Liquor, and Cannabis Commission (AGLC) has the only “regulated” online gambling platform in the Western Canadian province, the agency’s Play Alberta brand.
There are, however, multiple “grey” market operators taking bets in Alberta as well. The AGLC itself has acknowledged its share of all online gambling in the province could be less than 50%.
If you can't beat 'em, regulate 'em
A regulated market could help divert that activity away from offshore and illegal operators and toward ones licensed by Alberta that pay the province a cut of their revenue. Ontario, Canada’s most populous province, has reaped hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue from its competitive iGaming market, which launched in 2022.
Nally said last year that Alberta still planned to have a structure “very similar” to Ontario's for its iGaming market. Ontario has no cap on the number of operators that can participate – there are now 50 in the province offering sports betting, casino games, and poker – and it allowed previously “grey” sites to transition into the regulated system.
“We’re going to make it as seamless as possible for [operators] to enter the market,” Nally told Covers. “We want to make it as attractive as possible."
This is my year
Time will tell just how attractive the Alberta sports betting market is for operators.
PENN Entertainment Inc. CEO Jay Snowden said last August that while they didn’t have an exact launch date for Alberta, “the end of this year, early 2025, is kind of the rough timeframe.”
A few months later, Snowden's expectations had changed, reflecting the change in rhetoric from the Alberta government.
PENN, though, has been bullish about the province, partly because of the results the operator has seen with theScore Bet in Ontario.
“It certainly has moved into 2025,” Snowden said of a potential Alberta launch during a November earnings call. “We'll wait on the government, the regulators there, to tell us exactly when the go-live launch would be.”
