Alberta's First NFL Season Puts Its New Online Sportsbooks to the Test

^{Sports fans in Alberta can now legally wager at the likes of BetMGM, FanDuel, DraftKings, Caesars and more. (Image: Peter Kováč/Alamy)}

Alberta bettors got through their first full NFL Sunday with a private sportsbook market to choose from. 

Two months after the province opened iGaming beyond Play Alberta, the weekend slate looked closer to what fans in Ontario or Ohio are used to than what Albertans have had in the past.

For years, betting on sports online in Alberta meant one of two things: the government-run Play Alberta site, or an unlicensed grey market operator.

That changed on July 13, when Alberta opened its regulated online gambling market to private operators.

This weekend, Albertans opening their phones for early games had access to multiple operators including: 

• BetMGM Alberta
• bet365 Alberta
• Caesars Alberta
• theScore Bet Alberta
• BetRivers Alberta
• FanDuel Alberta
• DraftKings Alberta

Sports and Casino

Most of those apps run sports betting and casino games under the same account.

A bettor riding a same-game parlay through the early window can move into slots or blackjack during a blowout without opening a second app.

While Ontario players have had that setup for years, Alberta sports fans are only just getting it.

Betway is a notable absence from the field: the operator, a heavy NFL advertiser in other regulated markets, is not currently on the Alberta iGaming Corporation's list of active sites, though it is expected to launch in the province this year.

Catching Up to Ontario and the U.S.

Ontario has run a regulated iGaming market since April 2022 and is heading into its fifth NFL season. 

The U.S. has even more runway.

More than 30 states have legalized some form of sports betting since the Supreme Court struck down the federal ban in 2018, and operators like BetMGM, FanDuel and DraftKings have spent years refining how they run NFL promotions in mature markets.

Alberta doesn't have that history yet.

This is the first NFL season under its open market, and there's no public data to measure it against.

AGLC is expected to publish its first quarterly report on how the market performed later this fall.