Canadian casino Betty enters UK market
Table of contents
- Betty goes live in the UK on 1 June, its first market outside Ontario, under a decentralised franchise model.
- The operator holds a UK Gambling Commission licence active from 1 April, with a dedicated CEO, technology stack and start-up capital in place.
- Betty Canada targets an Alberta launch when the province’s regulated iGaming market opens on 13 July.
Canadian operator Betty has launched in the UK, entering one of the world’s most competitive online casino markets as the first test of its decentralised franchise model beyond Ontario.
Justin Park, co-founder and group CEO, confirmed the go-live yesterday, 1 June, via LinkedIn, saying the UK team had “executed phenomenally.”
Betty Gaming (Malta) Limited holds an active casino remote licence from the UK Gambling Commission, confirmed on the regulator’s public register from 1 April 2026.
The brand was built around an underserved audience of casual female slot players, retaining women at a rate three times higher than male counterparts.
From Ontario to global
Betty was co-founded in 2022 by Park and Chavdar Dimitrov, who left Bede Gaming after nearly nine years to launch the brand. The operator took its first wager in Ontario in February 2023, targeting an underserved audience of casual female slot players in a market dominated by generalist operators.
The Ontario business grew rapidly. Net revenue expanded from C$9.4m to C$27.3m across 2025, with its active player base rising from 45,000 to 134,000 over the same period.
In 2025, Betty rebranded its Ontario operations as Betty Canada and introduced a decentralised franchise structure, appointing Dimitrov as CEO of the Canadian unit.
Each franchise operates with its own brand, technology, player acquisition tools, operating playbook and start-up capital. Park has previously signalled Betty USA and Betty LATAM as longer-term targets under the same model.
UK team praised
The Betty UK operation is led by Adele Baker, a former Managing Director at Super Group-owned 15 Marketing. Park credited Baker in his Q1 investor update with setting “the bar extremely high for talent.”
Also recognised was Zhasmina Draganova, Betty UK’s chief technology officer, who joined Betty in 2022 at its Sofia office having previously worked at Bede Gaming, a Merkur Group subsidiary.
Park, addressing the UK team directly, said:
“Let’s expect lots of things to go wrong in the beginning. Let’s stay connected with each other and, most importantly, the customer.”
Betty enters the UK at a difficult moment for the sector. The remote gaming duty increase from 21% to 40%, effective from April, has squeezed margins across the industry, with established operators forced to restructure existing cost bases.
Park has argued the shift creates an opening for new entrants starting from scratch, a position he set out in Betty’s Q1 investor update.
North America expansion
Betty’s Canadian business is pressing ahead simultaneously. Dimitrov confirmed the operator is on track to launch in Alberta when the province’s regulated iGaming market opens on 13 July, joining a confirmed field that includes DraftKings, FanDuel, BetMGM and Betway.
In Ontario, Betty recently expanded beyond its core slots offering with the launch of online bingo, enabled through the acquisition of Kirkland Lake Bingo Hall and built on in-house technology within the province’s charitable gaming framework.
Betty also participated in a funding round for 23 Broadway, a player acquisition technology supplier the operator uses to scale in Ontario. Betty UK’s medium-term goal is to grow efficiently enough to unlock growth funding from player acquisition platform 23 Broadway, in which Betty has previously invested.
With the franchise model now live in a second jurisdiction, Betty’s appeal to the UK audience will be closely watched by the wider industry.
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