Alberta Approves Expansion of Sports Betting Market

Alberta’s legal sports betting market is set to get a significant upgrade.

The Canadian province has passed Bill 48 to expand its gaming market. The bill will allow third-party sportsbook operators to launch in Alberta, ending a long monopoly held by the government-run Play Alberta platform. It will now need to wait for Royal Assent, a formality that turns it into law.

Bill 48 was modeled after Ontario’s thriving gambling market. The province has enjoyed a booming sports betting market since April 2022 and has been generating massive tax revenue numbers. This success led lawmakers in Alberta to study the market when creating their own proposal.

Alberta had initially hoped to expand its sports betting market by the end of 2024, but ran out of time. While no launch date has been set, early rumors suggest the market could expand by the end of 2025 or early 2026.

Early projections show that Alberta could see up to $700 million annually from the expansion of sports betting and online casinos.

Play Alberta Sees Lack of Engagement from Bettors

The driving force behind Bill 48 is the lack of engagement with Play Alberta. The platform is the only legal option in the province, but bettors are either bored by it or are finding other ways to bet. 

“Play Alberta is a success story, but it’s a bit sobering to consider that it’s only capturing up to 45 per cent of Albertans who gamble online,” Minister Dale Nally said before the third reading of Bill 48. “That’s why we’re proposing to establish a regulated market where private operators are required to register and follow rules that will require them to put safeguards in place that better protect Albertans.”

Albertais learning a lesson that Washington, D.C. has learned the hard way over the last year. The market only offered a lotter-run sports betting platform named GameBetDC, but it consistently fell short of revenue from games. DC has expanded its market since then and has seen a massive uptick in tax revenue. Alberta is hoping that doing the same will produce similar results.