GGPoker has received approval to offer online poker in Alberta, while its parent company NSUS fights for international liquidity in the Supreme Court of Canada.
Alberta Gaming, Liquor, and Cannabis (AGLC) issued an iGaming operator license to GGPoker on Aug. 12, although the platform is yet to relaunch in the province.
A GGPoker spokesperson told Canadian Gaming Business in late June that the company was working through the application process. An email inquiring about GGPoker’s approved license and launch plans was not returned by the time of publishing.
The company must still execute an operating agreement with Alberta iGaming Corporation (AiGC) before it can actually start offering poker games and prizes in the market.
Owned by NSUS, which bought the World Series of Poker (WSOP) brand from Caesars Entertainment for US$500m in 2024, GGPoker is reputedly the largest online poker network in the world.
Licensed and operational as a P2P poker operator in Ontario, it has been offline in Alberta since the province launched its regulated online gambling market on July 13. AGLC’s iGaming regulations gave operators a three-month grace period in select cases to transition over to the regulated market.
Now, GGPoker is the first pure poker brand to obtain an Alberta license.
NSUS fights for international liquidity
Like in Ontario since that province began regulating iGaming in 2022, online poker in Alberta will not be particularly lucrative for operators — at least, not in its current form.
That’s because, like in Ontario, play will be fenced within the province, meaning that Alberta users can only play against other Alberta users. That contrasts with the multi-region pooling models used in some regions, including through the Multi-State Internet Gaming Agreement (MSIGA) that connects several U.S. states. Operators like BetMGM and PokerStars offer multi-state networks, but cannot connect those to Ontario or Alberta.
Not yet, anyway.
In late 2024, the Ontario government asked the provincial Court of Appeal whether it would be legal to connect P2P poker and daily fantasy sports play to other jurisdictions outside of Canada. Ontario was supported in that endeavour by GGPoker owner NSUS, as well as PokerStars owner Flutter and the Canadian Gaming Association.
After the appeals court determined last November that it would be permissible, numerous Canadian crown lottery corporations appealed to the Supreme Court of Canada, seeking to block the Ontario court ruling. NSUS remains a party at the appeal stage. Back in the spring, Alberta Attorney General Mickey Amery led the province into the Supreme Court appeal as an intervening party, arguing on the side of allowing pooled liquidity, citing a “significant interest” pertaining to Alberta’s iGaming market.
A Supreme Court hearing is scheduled for Oct. 7.
For now, online poker play will remain fenced into Alberta. In Ontario, that has severely curtailed the market; the vertical accounts for only around 1% of both handle and revenue in the province’s iGaming market.
Alberta’s population is less than one-third of Ontario’s, at around five million. As it stands, online poker will not exactly be a huge moneymaker for operators like GGPoker.
Will Alberta and Ontario connect poker markets?
However, there is a world in which Alberta and Ontario could connect their P2P poker markets, which could make things a lot more appealing for operators and players alike.
In fact, that’s the plan, as AiGC CEO Dan Keene confirmed during an SBC Summit Canada panel in Toronto in May that the provinces are working on a memorandum of understanding to combine their player pools.
“We’ll try and get that done as quickly as we can with our friends in Ontario,” Keene said in May. “We are in favour of that … From a business and commercial perspective, it makes a lot of sense.”
That would allow for a much larger player base than Alberta alone, as well as more competitive games, larger prize pools, and more.
Another brand licensed in Alberta, 888, outlined plans earlier this year to launch regulated poker in Alberta via the 888poker platform that it operates in Ontario. However, the evoke-owned company suggested that will likely depend on the province securing shared liquidity with Ontario.
Other Alberta iGaming sites join the market
In total, more than 36 operators have been licensed to offer Alberta iGaming, many of which have more than one brand or platform registered.
A total of 28 separate sites run by 19 different operating companies are already live and operational in the province’s market as of the time of writing:
- AGLC’s Play Alberta
- Bally’s Corporation (Bally Bet and Monopoly Casino & Sportsbook)
- Bet365 Casino and Bet365 Sportsbook
- BetMGM Sportsbook & Casino
- Betsson’s Casino Days
- Betty Casino
- BetVictor Sportsbook & Casino
- Boyd Interactive’s Stardust Casino
- Caesars Entertainment (Caesars Palace Casino, Caesars Sportsbook & Casino, and Horseshoe Casino)
- DAZN Bet Sportsbook & Casino
- Delta Casino
- DraftKings (DraftKings Sportsbook & Casino and Golden Nugget Casino)
- Entain (PartyCasino and Sports Interaction)
- FanDuel Casino and FanDuel Sportsbook
- LuckyDays Casino
- PENN Entertainment (theScore Bet Sportsbook & Casino, theScore Casino, and Hollywood Casino)
- PURE Casino
- Rush Street Interactive’s BetRivers Casino & Sportsbook
- TonyBet
The most recent live launches in the province were Bally’s two brands, which went live on Aug. 4, and First Nations-owned brick-and-mortar casino operator PURE Casino Entertainment, which launched its online platform on Aug. 7.
As well as GGPoker and 888, other online gambling operators registered in Alberta but yet to hit the market include:
- Bet99
- Kaizen Gaming’s Betano
- PointsBet Canada
- River Cree iGaming
- Soft2Bet’s ToonieBet
- Super Group’s five brands including Betway
