- Sports Interaction and PartyCasino went live July 23, giving Entain three Alberta brands with its BetMGM joint venture.
- The Alberta iGaming Corporation lists 24 approved sites, while Alberta Gaming, Liquor and Cannabis has registered 36 iGaming operators.
- Day-one operators must hold an Alberta certificate for every game within 90 days of go-live, an Oct. 11 deadline.
- BetMGM reported $711 million in second-quarter net revenue, up 3%, and named Alberta among its drivers into the second half.
EDMONTON, Alberta – Sports Interaction and PartyCasino began taking bets in Alberta on July 23, lifting the province’s list of approved iGaming sites to 24 and giving Entain three live brands, 10 days after the market opened.
How The 24 Approved Sites Break Down
Both brands now appear on the Alberta iGaming Corporation’s directory of registered iGaming sites, the public list of every site cleared to take bets in the province. Entain’s BetMGM joint venture went live on July 13, the day the market opened, leaving the operator with three of the 24 listed brands.
Brand counts and company counts are not the same thing on that list. The gaming registrant database kept by Alberta Gaming, Liquor and Cannabis shows American Wagering, Inc. cleared to run Caesars Sportsbook, Caesars Palace Casino and Horseshoe Casino, and Score Media & Gaming Inc. cleared to run theScore Bet Sportsbook, theScore Casino and Hollywood Casino. Add FanDuel’s pair, bet365’s pair and Entain’s own two, and half the 24 sites trace back to five companies.
The roster overlaps heavily with the online gambling sites for Canadians already licensed in Ontario, where both new Entain brands already operate.
The directory counted 22 sites when Alberta’s online gambling market opened, two fewer than it lists now.
What The Registrant List Shows
The same database lists 36 companies registered as iGaming operators, along with 58 critical gaming systems providers and 15 platform providers. Every one of those operator registrations except the government’s own Play Alberta expires July 13, 2027, a year to the day after the market opened.
Several registered operators still have no site in the directory, among them PointsBet Canada Operations 1 Inc., Bally’s Canada, Inc., Kaizen Gaming Canada Inc. and two Alberta land-based operators, Pure Casino Entertainment Limited Partnership and River Cree iGaming. Registration with the regulator is only the first of two steps Alberta gambling operators must clear. AGLC says a site must also sign a commercial agreement with the Alberta iGaming Corporation before it can take a wager.
The Compliance Clock Starts At Go-Live
AGLC’s Internet Gaming Go-Live Compliance Guide, last updated in March, states that registration and completion of the go-live requirements do not authorize gaming operations, and that the authority lies with the Alberta iGaming Corporation, which establishes operating agreements with registered operators.
The paperwork does not stop at launch. Operators must hold a SOC 2 Type 1 attestation covering every site named on their registration at go-live, and an ISO 27001 certification or SOC 2 Type 2 attestation within two years. AGLC will consider accepting games already approved elsewhere if an Alberta-registered testing facility tested them before go-live, but after go-live every game certification must include an Alberta certificate within 90 days.
Most operators must also file an audited control activity matrix within three months of go-live. AGLC can demand that matrix before registration from any operator it treats as elevated risk, a category the guide applies to companies new to iGaming, without prior licences or registrations in other jurisdictions, or with a history of noncompliance.
What Alberta Means To BetMGM’s Numbers
Entain’s second-quarter business update for BetMGM, published July 28, reported net revenue of $711 million, up 3% year over year, with adjusted EBITDA of $74 million. All figures are in U.S. dollars. iGaming net revenue rose 8% to $483 million while online sports revenue was flat at $228 million.
First-half net revenue reached $1.406 billion, up 4%, on adjusted EBITDA of $99 million. The joint venture expects full-year results toward the lower end of its guidance of $2.9 billion to $3.1 billion in net revenue and $300 million to $350 million in adjusted EBITDA. It said its $500 million EBITDA ambition will now extend beyond the 2027 timing it had assumed, citing prediction-market regulatory complexity.
Adam Greenblatt, chief executive of BetMGM, said the business is “generating positive cash flow and Adjusted EBITDA” while the industry “faces regulatory complexity and an increasingly competitive environment.” The update, in its own outlook language rather than the chief executive’s, named Alberta among the drivers carrying into the second half, citing “momentum from Borgata’s brand refresh, a strong World Cup as well as our recent successful launch in Alberta.”
For the operators that opened July 13, the 90-day deadline for Alberta game certificates falls Oct. 11. Their audited control activity matrices are due to AGLC two days after that, three months post go-live.
