There was a time when there were hopes that an Alberta iGaming market might be up and running to kick-start start 2025. But almost 18 months after the provincial government took its foot off the accelerator and delayed its ambitious early timeline, the launch of regulated commercial online gambling in the province finally feels like it could be a possibility.
In interviews with Canadian Gaming Business over the last week, both the Minister responsible for Alberta iGaming and the interim Chief Executive Officer of the market’s management agency projected that around the start of this coming summer is a likely timeframe for the puck actually dropping.
“I would suggest that spring/summer is when you’re going to see the market open in Alberta,” Alberta iGaming Corporation (AiGC) Interim CEO Dan Keene said on a call last week. “I remain very confident of that.”
Speaking by phone two days later, Minister of Service Alberta and Red Tape Reduction Dale Nally hinted at what executives at companies including BetRivers operator Rush Street Interactive and Betway owner Super Group have said publicly recently: A launch around the end of Q2 (June) or the start of Q3 (July) feels within touching distance.
“I can’t give you the exact date, but we have some temporary regulatory requirements that we put up, and the expiration on those I believe is the second week in July,” Nally said. “So I think you can take that as a very big hint that we won’t be having this conversation in July. I can only tell you that the team is going all out to make sure that we’re live very soon.
“We have a date in mind. We’re just not ready to put out the media just yet.”
A long road, carefully walked
Rewind two years, and the initial targets were that Alberta iGaming would launch in early 2025 or even as early as in time for the 2024 Grey Cup in November of that year.
That seems remarkably optimistic with hindsight; when Nally and Co. pumped the brakes in October 2024, there was little surprise that the rollout would take longer than first hoped.
“I think there was a growing concern about just how they were going to get everything done in the time required,” Canadian Gaming Association President and CEO Paul Burns told Canadian Gaming Business at that time. “The government is evaluating its timelines and making sure they can meet all of the objectives they’re setting out for themselves, and they’re giving themselves a few more months to be able to do the work.”
Close enough to a year and a half has passed since then, and the fruits of that work are becoming apparent. Bill 48, the iGaming Alberta Act, was enacted last spring. The regulator, Alberta Gaming, Liquor and Cannabis (AGLC), published its initial batch of guidelines for operator and supplier conduct in the market in January of this year, and several Ontario-licensed operators have confirmed that they have already applied for registration, thus allowing them to start signing up customers.
Still plenty of work to do for Alberta iGaming Corp.
While Alberta officials and operators believe late spring or early summer is on the cards, Keene, the AGLC VP of Gaming now serving in a temporary role as AiGC leader, outlined the work that still needs to be done.
He noted that a major C-suite recruitment drive is underway for the iGaming corporation, which will be Alberta’s equivalent of Ontario’s conduct-and-manage agency iGaming Ontario (iGO).
Like in Ontario, with the dual process of registering with the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO) and contracting with iGO, Alberta operators who receive a license from AGLC will sign an operating agreement with AiGC in order to go live.
“There will be an operator agreement and subsequent policies that the operators will have to agree to,” Keene explained. “Once they do, they become an agent of the AiGC to conduct and manage iGaming within the province. We suspect in the coming weeks, we’ll be able to share a first cut of that operating agreement with operators to get some feedback.”
In the meantime, the AiGC is hunting for a Chief Compliance and Operations Officer, a Chief Information Officer, a Chief Financial Officer, and a Director of AML, among other roles. Keene listed some other things that still have to happen for the corporation: finding a location for headquarters, building a website and a brand, coordinating with stakeholders, and refining requirements.
Just last Friday, the AiGC and the Responsible Gambling Council announced that Alberta will mandate all operators to achieve the council’s RG Check accreditation, the same requirement that is separately in place in Ontario. Keene said that other responsible gambling-related updates will be coming down the pipeline, including more details on the centralized self-exclusion system the province intends to have in place.
“You will see in the coming weeks a more fulsome engagement calendar come out,” added Keene. “Because, from there, we need to obviously work and engage with industry on the policies that will guide all of our activity.”
In full flow by NFL and NHL season?
Taking that late Q2/early Q3 timeline at face value, the AiGC, AGLC, and Alberta operators would be able to fire up business and start taking sports bets and online casino wagers at the outset of the comparatively slow summer sports season.
Given the North American sporting calendar, the aim is to have the wheels greased and momentum behind the nascent market in time for the next NFL and NHL seasons starting in September and October.
Until then, the work continues for Keene and the Alberta iGaming Corporation.
“One of the biggest things I’ve heard from operators, and it’s so true, is that we need to do it right and with integrity,” added the AiGC’s interim leader. “I’m confident in AiGC and AGLC, immensely confident in our industry and our partners in business. We certainly won’t shirk any of our responsibilities.”
