Alberta Sports Betting Delayed Into 2025


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Alberta sports betting

While there were hopes Alberta sports betting could launch before 2025, the province’s top regulator is pushing back the potential start date.

Earlier this year, Dave Nally, minister of Service Alberta and Red Tape Reduction, told a crowd at the Canadian Gaming Summit that the department was in conversations with Alberta sports betting stakeholders to get the market up and running as soon as possible, potentially before the end of 2024. This month, however, a spokesperson from the department told LSR those conversations must continue into next year.

“We want to get our iGaming strategy right to ensure fairness and transparency to everyone,” Brandon Aboultaif, Nally’s press secretary, said in an email to LSR earlier this month. “Industry stakeholders have told us that we need to continue our conversations so they can provide more input on the model. We are doing just that. Further engagements will also provide opportunities that align with our red tape reduction priorities. 

“While we aim to put the strategy forward in 2025, we will continue to provide updates as this work unfolds.”

Why the holdup? 

According to Paul Burns, president of the Canadian Gaming Association, the delay will help Alberta get the online gambling regulations “right.” 

“Alberta’s [decision to] step back to take more time to develop their iGaming model was theirs with support from industry,” Burns said. “We encouraged them to get it right vs. being quick.”

Nally held two roundtables at G2E this month about the process and explained he will aim to make legislative amendments to the province’s Gaming Control Act next spring. He told one of the panels he hopes to be talking about an “open and free market” by October 2025, according to Canadian Gaming Business.

Alberta sports betting anticipation 

Following Nally’s comments earlier this year, operators began sharing their expectations for the market during August’s earnings report season. It will be the second Canadian province with commercial online sports betting and online casinos.

Ontario became the first province with an open online gambling market in April 2022. Nally said Alberta would follow many of the regulations Ontario laid out before it launched and the changes regulators have made since.

Residents of the province have access to online gambling through Alberta Gaming, Liquor and Cannabis Commission’s Play Alberta

Bullish Alberta stakeholders

During the August earnings season and at June’s CGS, Alberta stakeholders said they believe the province could be a strong performer.

Northstar Gaming CEO Michael Moskowitz said the province has the youngest adult population in Canada while sporting the highest per-capita GDP.

Rush Street Interactive CEO Richard Schwartz noted the province has the highest per-capita spending on gaming in the country.

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