Alberta launches regulated online gambling market with 50 approved operators

Alberta has become the second Canadian province, after Ontario, to open a competitive licensing market for online gambling. For PSPs, acquirers, and banks, the immediate point is simple: a new regulated channel is live, with private operators now able to offer online sports betting and casino products under provincial oversight.

1. Fifty operators have completed registration with Alberta Gaming, Liquor & Cannabis, including DraftKings, BetMGM, FanDuel, PointsBet, theScore Bet, bet365 and BetRivers. The market is supervised by the Alberta iGaming Corporation, which covers both online sportsbooks and casinos.
2. The launch follows several years of legislative work to build a competitive, locally supervised industry. Alberta’s framework was modeled largely on Ontario’s 2022 licensing system, and the province used Ontario’s results as evidence that the approach could work.
3. Alberta is targeting around US$ 1 billion in gambling revenue in the first year of operation. The market opened near the end of the FIFA World Cup, with only the semi-finals and final remaining, so authorities expect the tournament to provide an immediate lift to betting volumes during the launch period.
4. Channelisation is the other number to watch. Provincial authorities estimate that around 70 per cent of gambling activity in Alberta has been happening through websites licensed in foreign jurisdictions, while AiGC chief executive officer Dan Keene said he expects the regulated market to take a significantly larger share over time.
5. Ontario is the closest benchmark. An IPSOS study for 2025 put Ontario’s channelisation rate at approximately 83.7 per cent, which means nearly 16 per cent of players still use offshore operators. For payment teams, that is the real operational question: how much volume migrates from foreign-licensed sites to domestically regulated merchants, and how fast.