Alberta’s largest land-based casino operator PURE Casino Entertainment has joined the International Betting Integrity Association (IBIA) after launching online sports betting for the first time.
PURE owns seven casinos in the province and recently took its brand online via a new purecasino.ca platform. As part of its expansion into iGaming, it signed up online and retail sports betting technology specialist Kambi to power the sports wagering side of its business.
“Launching our online betting operations marks an important milestone for PURE Casino’s iGaming Platform offering in Alberta, and joining IBIA is a key part of our integrity and compliance framework,” said PURE Casino Entertainment CEO Brad Belhouse in a statement.
“Working with IBIA, the leading betting integrity body serving Canada’s regulated market, reflects our commitment to protecting customers, safeguarding sporting integrity and supporting a trusted, well-regulated betting environment.”
Alberta makes integrity monitoring mandatory for operators
Alberta’s iGaming regulations, like Ontario’s, mandate that all licensed operators must contract with a provincially approved Independent Integrity Monitor (IIM), such as the IBIA or Integrity Compliance 360 (IC360).
The IBIA was registered as a services supplier in May to provide its integrity monitoring tools including its Global Monitoring & Alert Platform (MAP) to operators and to work together with the market regulator, Alberta Gaming, Liquor & Cannabis (AGLC).
While many of the operators entering Alberta iGaming also do business in Ontario and have pre-existing relationships with integrity firms, PURE Casino is an Alberta-only operator that has never before offered online sports betting, and so needed to partner with an IIM from scratch.
“As Alberta’s largest land-based casino operator, PURE Casino brings significant scale and expertise to our Canadian and global integrity monitoring network,” said IBIA CEO Khalid Ali. “Its membership reinforces the integrity framework underpinning Canada’s regulated sports betting market and highlights the value of embedding collaborative integrity monitoring from the outset of a new regulatory regime.”
PURE Casino spreads wings with online launch
PURE Casino is owned by Indigenous Gaming Partners (IGP), a group of five Nova Scotia First Nations in partnership with Sonco Gaming. It operates seven casino properties across Alberta, adding three more locations to its original four PIRE-branded venues when it acquired GameHost Inc. this year.
In August, a few weeks after Alberta opened its iGaming market on July 13, it launched a Boyd Interactive-powered online platform in the province, the first First Nations gaming entity and first Alberta-only brick-and-mortar operator to do so.
Belhouse told Canadian Gaming Business in an exclusive interview this month that PURE Casino had plans to launch iGaming long before Alberta actually opened its doors to iGaming, and that it hopes to make its retail gaming advantage count. On the Kambi sports betting deal specifically, Belhouse stressed that PURE wanted to work with an expert in the field, given that sports betting is a new product for the operator.
Now, as part of the IBIA, it will work with one of the most prominent betting monitoring and integrity firms in the world.
IBIA adds to Canadian footprint
The IBIA already works with numerous licensed operators in Alberta, including the likes of
- Bally’s
- bet365
- BetVictor
- Entain
- FanDuel
- PENN Entertainment
It also works hand-in-hand with Canadian sports entities like the Canadian Football League (CFL), the Canadian Premier League (CPL), and the Professional Footballers Association of Canada (PFA Canada) on initiatives such as player education campaigns.
“IBIA’s work in Canada shows that integrity is built through collaboration,” wrote the IBIA in its Q2 2026 report. “When athletes, leagues, integrity experts and regulated betting operators work together, sport is better equipped to remain fair, transparent and trusted.
“IBIA has invested in athlete education to help players understand the integrity risks, meet their responsibilities and protect the competitions they represent.”
