More licensed online gambling sites have joined Alberta’s regulated iGaming market, headlined by Betway. Many others will likely follow in the next few weeks.
Betway began taking bets in the province’s licensed market this week, the provincial iGaming management agency Alberta iGaming Corporation (AiGC) confirmed on Monday.
Betway, which unveiled the Toronto Blue Jays’ Vladimir Guerrero Jr. as a brand ambassador in June, is a longtime active unregulated site in Canada, including Alberta. It has now joined 30-plus other online sports betting and/or casino sites doing business in that province with the blessing of the government under the licensed, regulated iGaming model launched on July 13.
Alberta becomes Betway’s second provincially licensed market in Canada, after Ontario, where it similarly transitioned over from the grey market after that province’s regulated iGaming launch in 2022.
Meanwhile, AiGC noted that another newly licensed site, Golden Tiger Casino, has also just gone live. That is the first of the seven brands that Apollo Entertainment has registered in Alberta to actually launch in the market.
Super Group brings sites out of the grey in Alberta
Betway is one of five platforms that its parent company, Super Group, has registered for Alberta’s market:
- Betway
- Jackpot City
- Royal Vegas
- Ruby Fortune
- Spin
All of those sites operate in Ontario’s regulated market, and they are also available in the unregulated market in other provinces, where the respective government gaming operators are the only ones authorized to do business. Data from H2 Gambling Capital provided to Canadian Gaming Business this month identifies Super Group as the biggest operator in Canada’s unregulated market by share of total revenue.
In Alberta, Super Group began transitioning its sites to the regulated market in recent weeks, first with Royal Vegas and Ruby Fortune before Betway completed the switch-over.
Canadian Gaming Business contacted Super Group to ask for an update on the transition plans for the Jackpot City and Spin casinos.
AGLC: ‘Second wave’ coming as Oct. 13 deadline approaches
The reason this is happening now is that a key deadline is fast approaching in Alberta.
Once Alberta’s regulated market opened, Alberta Gaming, Liquor, and Cannabis (AGLC) required any operators like Super Group that were already active in the province to end all unregulated gaming activity and either pay licensing fees and tax or exit the province. The regulator offered a three-month grace period on a case-by-case basis, making the final deadline for ending unregulated gaming Oct. 13.
Several operators, including bet365 and Entain’s Sports Interaction, already completed that transition either on or after the July 13 launch day. Roughly 20 sites launched on day one on July 13; that has already grown to more than 30, and there are many more registrants waiting in the wings.
Some of those, such as Bet99 and newly registered Stake, were available in Alberta pre-regulation, while other eventual entrants will be brand-new to the province.
Alberta officials expect 70 licensed sites
GLC Chief Regulatory Officer and EVP Dave Berry told Canadian Gaming Business this week that he expects “a second wave” of registered iGaming sites to go live in the regulated market over the next few weeks as Oct. 13 comes and passes.
Back in May at SBC Summit Canada, Alberta’s minister responsible for iGaming, Dale Nally, said that he ultimately expected as many as 70 operator sites to take part in the province’s regulated market. Berry echoed that number to Canadian Gaming Business on Monday.
Not every previously active unregulated site will continue to operate in Alberta under the province’s new model. Berry also revealed that more than one operator that had been live pre-registration wrote to the AGLC to inform the regulator that it would not seek licensure in the new market and would instead exit the province.
As of the time of writing, with Betway and Golden Tiger’s additions, AiGC lists a total of 33 active licensed iGaming sites, some of which are shared by the same operating company. In contrast, Ontario’s four-year-old regulated market is currently home to 49 commercial operators running a total of 84 sites.
