More licensed online gambling sites have joined Alberta’s regulated iGaming market, headlined by Betway and other Super Group brands. Many others will likely follow in the next few weeks.
Betway was one of several platforms that began taking bets in the province’s licensed market this week, the provincial iGaming management agency Alberta iGaming Corporation (AiGC) confirmed.
Others that went live in the last week of September or the first days of October include:
- Another Super Group brand, Spin casino
- Golden Tiger Casino, one of seven sites that Apollo Entertainment has registered in Alberta
- Powerplay casino and sportsbook.
Super Group brings sites out of the grey in Alberta
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.
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. Spin also officially joined the regulated market this week.
AGLC: ‘Second wave’ coming as Oct. 13 deadline approaches
In Super Group’s case, 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.
AGLC 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.
Alberta officials expect 60 licensed sites
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 as the likely ballpark total eventually.
More imminently, Nally responded to a question from Canadian Gaming Business at G2E in Las Vegas on Tuesday by suggesting that the current expectation is that Alberta will have 60 operator sites in the market by the Oct. 13 grey-market transition deadline.
“We know that there are other operators that want to join our market, but they’re still building, and they’re not in the grey market,” Nally said during the Q&A period of a Canadian iGaming-focused panel. “But, by Oct. 13, we think we’re going to be about 60 or 61.”
Not every previously active unregulated site like Betway will continue to operate in Alberta under the province’s new model. AGLC’s 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.
With the additions of Betway and the other recent arrivals, AiGC lists a total of 35 active licensed iGaming sites as of the time of writing, 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.
“Our plan is working,” said Nally. “We are going to build a responsible market. We’re going to put safety first. We’re going to put responsibility first. You need the operators to embrace it, and the fact that we’re at 30+ operators six weeks in signals that the AGLC, the AiGC, the department, everybody has done a great job.”
