PointsBet Opened Alberta Early and Still Cannot Take Bets

PointsBet Canada opened Alberta pre-registration on February 3, 2026, and told residents a full sportsbook and casino would follow in the coming months. Alberta’s private iGaming market opened on July 13, 2026, and the live site list still has no PointsBet.

The Alberta iGaming Corporation now publishes a 31-site directory. PointsBet is not on it, which means the first big email harvest of the new market still cannot take a wager.

PointsBet Opened the Email List First

From Toronto, the company said it had commenced the Alberta registration process and could start marketing while final steps continued. Eligible residents were pointed to pointsbet.ca for launch notices and an exclusive welcome offer.

Scott Vanderwel, chief executive of PointsBet Canada, tied the move to the province’s shift toward private operators after years of a single Crown shop.

Alberta’s move toward an open, competitive iGaming framework is a positive step for Canadian players, offering more choice and consumer protections in a safe and regulated environment.

Scott Vanderwel, Chief Executive Officer, PointsBet Canada

The same notice called PointsBet an “authentically Canadian sportsbook,” built with Canadian staff and already live in Ontario, with racing and casino products on a cloud wagering stack. It also recorded the ownership change: MIXI Australia held a majority stake after its takeover offer closed.

That February note was an early-mover play. Alberta Gaming, Liquor and Cannabis had opened a path that let a brand collect names before it could accept a dollar. PointsBet used it.

Alberta Lets Operators Market Before They Can Take a Bet

Spring 2025’s Bill 48 created the iGaming Alberta Act, split the Crown’s jobs, and set the online age at 18. AGLC regulates. The Alberta iGaming Corporation, a separate Crown corporation, conducts and manages the private market. January 2026 amendments to the Gaming, Liquor and Cannabis Regulation then told operators how to advertise during the wait.

The provincial factsheet is blunt about the wait. Once a firm is in the AGLC process, it may advertise and sign up customers, but it cannot add funds to their accounts or take bets until three items are done.

THE THREE GATES BEFORE A LIVE BET

• AGLC registration: Due diligence with the regulator, the step that unlocks ads and email capture.
• AiGC contract: A commercial agreement with the Crown body that actually runs the private market.
• Launch notice: Written word from AiGC that the operator may go live.

Those rules also require a centralized self-exclusion file that covers private sites, the Crown’s Play Alberta platform, and land venues, plus deposit and time limits at sign-up. The money split is equally specific: operators keep 80 per cent of net iGaming revenue, the province keeps 20 per cent, 2 per cent of gross gaming revenue is earmarked for First Nations, and 1 per cent of GGR funds social-responsibility work.

PointsBet cleared the first gate in public. The June 26, 2026 AGLC extract lists PointsBet Canada Operations 1 Inc., operating as PointsBet and PointsBet Canada, with a Toronto address, among 47 iGaming operator registrations. A name on that PDF is permission to keep marketing. It is not a cashier.

The July 13 Directory Left PointsBet Off

Opening day listed 22 approved sites. DraftKings, FanDuel, BetMGM, Caesars, bet365, BetRivers, and theScore were among the brands that had finished the commercial step and could take Alberta money that Monday. PointsBet, which had been collecting emails since February, was not on that opening card.

The gap has not closed. AiGC’s public directory of registered iGaming sites now names 31 products, from Bally Bet and Betty through Tonybet and Vegas Club Casino. FanDuel and bet365 each appear twice, sportsbook and casino. PointsBet does not appear at all.

AGLC LIST VS AIGC LIVE DIRECTORY

Play Alberta remains the provincial Crown platform, still listed as an AGLC iGaming operator in St. Albert, and it sits beside the private shops rather than inside that 31-site consumer directory. Registration with AGLC and a live AiGC listing are different public facts, and players only get a legal private book when both are true.

Pre-Registration Did Not Move Players Already on Grey-Market Books

Alberta designed the email window to help brands that were starting from scratch. Plenty of sportsbooks and casinos were already taking Alberta play off the provincial register, and those firms were given a path to bring existing accounts into the licensed market. A greenfield operator such as PointsBet had no such book. Pre-registration was the substitute: build a list, promise a welcome offer, hope some of those names convert on day one.

The conversion only works if day one arrives. Players who already keep a balance with a grey-market brand that then takes an AiGC deal have no reason to wait on a waitlist. They stay where the bets already clear. The new shop is asking them to open a second account for a bonus they have not seen.

Service Alberta Minister Dale Nally has said about 70 per cent of Alberta’s online play sat in that unregulated channel before the private market opened, which is why the province ended Play Alberta’s exclusive run. Channeling that spend was the political case for private licences. It is also why a late live date hurts more here than a late banner ad. The accounts worth having were already in someone else’s wallet when the July 13 books switched on.

PointsBet’s Ontario shop, live since that market opened on April 4, 2022, did not travel west with those players. An Ontario login is not an Alberta account. The February list had to do the work from zero, and it has been sitting in a queue while FanDuel, DraftKings, and BetMGM spent the summer taking the first legal private bets.

MIXI Bought Control and Kept the Canada Shop

The Alberta file sat under new owners. MIXI Inc., the Tokyo-listed entertainment group, used MIXI Australia to plan to take over PointsBet, then closed an off-market bid on September 12, 2025. MIXI Australia held 66.43 per cent of voting power, 230,893,535 shares, at AU$1.25 a share after a fight with betr. Counsel on the Canadian side of the deal put the offer at AU$430 million (C$387 million).

Betr’s rival paper had included a sale of the Canadian unit. MIXI kept it. Brooke Hilton, PointsBet Canada’s head of casino, said in November 2025 that the company would go into Alberta on day one, and that Ontario’s grind had prepared the stack. FY2025 Canada revenue from sports and iGaming was AU$42.9 million, up 26 per cent.

WHAT MIXI PAID TO KEEP CANADA

• Voting power: MIXI Australia held 66.43 per cent after September 12, 2025.
• Cash price: AU$1.25 a share on 230,893,535 shares.
• Canada book: AU$42.9 million in FY2025 revenue, up 26 per cent, kept inside the group.

Keeping Canada only pays if the second province turns into handle. Alberta was the first extra Canadian licence after Ontario, a copy of the dual-agency model with a smaller population and a crowded opening grid. A pre-registration lead that does not become a live cashier leaves MIXI holding a licensed name in a market other brands are already mining.

The Grey-Market Clock Runs Out on October 13

AGLC gave some unregulated operators a case-by-case path to finish the switch by October 13, 2026. After that date, remaining off-register activity can mean a permanent bar from the licensed market. Stake Canada Ltd. received iGaming operator registration on September 24, 2026, and general manager Kris Abbott said an operating agreement with AiGC was the remaining step before bets. Stake is also absent from the 31-site directory. The same two-gate lag that froze PointsBet is still minting late names as the cutoff nears.

Bet99 and Betway have been described as part of that same autumn queue. Nally has put first-year provincial take at $76 million, a modest figure next to Ontario’s private market, and one that assumes the licensed grid, not the leftover grey book, is where the play sits.

FROM PRE-REGISTRATION TO THE OCTOBER CUTOFF

1. Spring 2025: Alberta passes Bill 48 and the iGaming Alberta Act, creating AiGC and naming AGLC as regulator.
2. September 12, 2025: MIXI Australia closes its bid at 66.43 per cent voting power.
3. February 3, 2026: PointsBet opens Alberta pre-registration and starts marketing.
4. June 26, 2026: AGLC’s extract lists 47 iGaming operators, including PointsBet Canada Operations 1 Inc.
5. July 13, 2026: The private market opens with 22 approved sites; PointsBet is not among them.
6. September 24, 2026: Stake Canada is added as an AGLC iGaming operator, still without an AiGC live site.
7. October 13, 2026: The grey-market transition window closes for operators still outside the licensed market.

PointsBet has not issued a fresh Alberta launch date since the February notice. Until AiGC adds the brand to the live directory, that welcome offer is still an email, and Alberta players who want a legal private book already have 31 other addresses.