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For gaming operators

Youth protection is the issue most likely to tighten the rules on Alberta’s market.

Fund the independent program that keeps under‑18 athletes safe, and be on the public record doing it. AWARE Community Foundation brings betting-risk education to Alberta’s high-school and youth club teams, delivered by university athletes from the same sport.

It is what an operator chooses to do beyond the 1%. Partners fund one pooled program. They have no say over what is taught, and their name never goes anywhere near a young athlete.

“We already pay 1%” What partners get
First, the 1%

“We already pay 1%.” Here is why this is different.

It is the first question every operator asks, so we answer it first.

Where the 1% goes

AiGC’s 1% social-responsibility allocation is for research, prevention, education and treatment, and the Province decides where it goes. Its first announced use, in September 2026, was about C$2.4 million for Brick House Recovery Centre. That is treatment, for people already harmed, and it is important work.

What it doesn’t do

We found no youth or school allocation from it. You don’t choose where it goes. And because every operator contributes to it, it gives no operator a story of its own to tell. If the Province does fund youth prevention from it, AWARE is built to work alongside that, not compete with it.

What AWARE is

What an operator chooses to do beyond the levy. Prevention, before harm, for the under-18 athletes on Alberta’s high-school and youth club teams. Independently governed, audited, and on the public record.

Which budget this comes from. Partnership is funded from responsible-gambling, compliance and community budgets, not marketing budgets. It has no marketing value, and we say so up front.
The rules, and what we don’t do with them

No athlete-advertising rights. No visibility to minors.

Alberta’s advertising standard limits how operators may use athletes, and keeps advertising away from schools and from media directed primarily to minors. We state both rules here so the limits of partnership are clear before any conversation starts.

Advertising and marketing must not “use active or retired athletes, who have an agreement or arrangement made directly or indirectly between an athlete and a registered Operator… in advertising and marketing except for the exclusive purpose of advocating for responsible gambling practices.”

AGLC Standards & Requirements for Internet Gaming · s. 4.1.4(d) · issued 18 June 2026

Advertising must not appear “on billboards or other outdoor displays that are directly adjacent to schools or other primarily youth-oriented locations,” and must not appear “in media and venues… directed primarily to minors.”

AGLC Standards & Requirements for Internet Gaming · s. 4.1 · a “Minor” is a person under 18 (s. 1.1)

Quoted from the published standard. AWARE Community Foundation is independent of AGLC and the Alberta iGaming Corporation; neither has reviewed or endorsed this page or our programs. This is not legal advice. Confirm any campaign with your own compliance counsel.

  1. Operators may use contracted athletes in Alberta advertising only to advocate responsible gambling.
  2. Operators must keep advertising away from schools and from media and venues directed primarily to minors. AWARE applies the same rule to its funders: no funder name, logo or mark ever appears in a session, material or communication for under-18 athletes, schools or clubs.
  3. AWARE does not supply athletes, broker endorsements or license athlete likenesses, to anyone. Our university athlete ambassadors have no contact with funders and never appear in any operator’s advertising or marketing.
  4. A partner may say that it funds AWARE, in one approved sentence, only in its corporate, ESG, responsible-gambling and regulator-facing materials and on its corporate responsible-gambling pages. Never in advertising or marketing, including responsible-gambling advertising, never on an in-app promotional surface, and never with any reference to young people, teams, schools, athletes or ambassadors. It is a plain funding acknowledgment, follows our mark-usage standard, and each new use is reviewed by us in advance.
  5. Partners remain responsible for their own compliance. Our review is not a regulatory approval, and AGLC has not reviewed or endorsed our programs.
What we are not offering, stated first. AWARE Community Foundation does not supply athletes as marketing talent, does not broker endorsements, and does not license athlete likenesses to funders. All partner money goes into one pool. No partner is credited on, or connected to, any program, session, ambassador or school. Our ambassadors work under the Foundation’s name and are never made available to a partner’s campaign. What partnership gives you is a real, independently governed youth program to point to, and a public record of having funded it. If we sold the former, the latter would be worthless, and so would we. Every limit, published in full →
The case · a worked example

What a Founding Partner actually gets

Recognition, reporting and a voice on operations. No rights over content, and nothing that reaches a young person. Below is how it would look for a Founding Partner in Year 1. The brand is a placeholder; yours goes there.

01AWARE’s messages on your RG screens

You carry AWARE’s parent and harassment messages to logged-in adult customers on your responsible-gambling and help screens only, never beside odds, offers or a bet slip. They are AWARE’s messages, not your promotion of AWARE, so no partner name, mark or funding statement is added to them. We write them; your compliance team clears placement.

Illustrative mockup
02Your corporate RG page and ESG report

You may state that you fund AWARE, in one approved sentence with the Founding Partner mark, only in your corporate, ESG, responsible-gambling and regulator-facing materials and on your corporate RG page. Never in advertising or marketing, including responsible-gambling advertising, and never with any reference to young people, teams, schools, athletes or ambassadors. We review each new use in advance.

Illustrative mockup
03Independent evidence, on the public record

Every year you get an outcomes briefing: sessions delivered, athletes reached, independently evaluated outcomes, and how the pooled fund was spent, backed by audited accounts. It holds the same results we publish to everyone. No session, team or school is ever attributed to a funder.

Illustrative mockup
Designation
The sole Founding Partner of AWARE Community Foundation for the three-year term. This is recognition only; it does not stop other operators from funding the work.
Recognition
Named as a funder in AWARE’s audited annual report and on this website, with the Founding Partner acknowledged first.
Pooled funding
Your money goes into one pool with every other partner’s. No partner is credited on, or connected to, any program, session, ambassador or school.
Never near minors
Funder names, logos and marks never appear in sessions, materials or communications for under-18 athletes, schools or clubs.
Brand use
The ‘AWARE Founding Partner’ mark as a plain funding acknowledgment, only in your corporate, ESG, responsible-gambling and regulator-facing materials and on your corporate RG page. Never in advertising or marketing, including responsible-gambling advertising, and never with any reference to young people, teams, schools, athletes or ambassadors. We review each new use in advance. The mark-usage standard will be published before any agreement is signed.
Reporting
An annual outcomes briefing with the same results we publish publicly, plus how your money was spent.
Input
A non-voting seat on the Partner Council, advising on operations only: how AWARE’s messages are distributed in your product, and the format of partner reporting. It has no say over curriculum, research, ambassadors or campaigns, or over which teams, schools or clubs are served, or when.
In-product
You carry AWARE-authored messages to your adult customers on your responsible-gambling and help screens only, never beside odds, offers or a bet slip: “Never harass a player over a bet,” and “Talking to your kids about sports betting? AWARE’s free family guide.” No partner name, mark or funding statement is added to them. We write them; your compliance team clears placement.
Staff training
The ‘Trained by AWARE’ staff seminar is offered separately, at $10,000 per cohort, to any licensed operator. It is a training seminar, not a certification.
Permanence
A founding designation no later entrant can buy, at a price fixed for three years.
Why fund it

Six reasons that hold up to scrutiny

Each one is something your compliance team can check.

Youth is the pressure point

Protecting minors is where the rules are most likely to tighten next. At the market’s launch on 13 July 2026, Alberta’s minister, Dale Nally, said the focus has been “to protect Albertans, especially young people.” Alberta’s standard already keeps betting ads away from schools and from media directed primarily to minors. In Ontario, AGCO Standard 2.03 (effective 28 February 2024) bars athletes who have an arrangement with an operator from betting ads, except for responsible-gambling advocacy, and restricts celebrities and influencers likely to appeal to minors. Federally, Bill S-211, a national framework on sports-betting advertising, passed second reading in the House of Commons 291–28 in April 2026. And nearly 1 in 4 Ontario students in grades 7–12 (23.4%) see or hear online-gambling ads every day (CAMH, 2025; Ontario data).

It mirrors your own obligations

You must not market to minors, and you must keep under-18s off your platform. AWARE is the industry-funded, independently governed prevention counterpart. It reaches young athletes where you can’t and shouldn’t, with no brand in the room. The Canadian Gaming Association’s advertising code (in effect January 2026) prohibits sponsoring sports teams or leagues that predominantly involve under-age people. AWARE is not sponsorship: funding is pooled and unbranded, and no partner is connected to any team, school or club. Operators already fund youth and student-athlete prevention in other markets, including EPIC Risk Management’s NCAA sessions, NCPG’s grants for ages 12–17 and the GLAD high-school curriculum. We found no Alberta equivalent.

On the public record

Every funder and every outcome is named in an audited, published annual report. RG Check, mandatory for every iGaming site entering Alberta, includes a Stakeholder Engagement standard whose Community Agencies criterion looks for an operator that “works collaboratively with prevention specialists and treatment providers.” Our report is documentable evidence relevant to that criterion, and to your own community and ESG reporting. It is a public record, not regulatory credit. Whether it counts is for the assessors, and we never promise it. AGLC and AiGC have not reviewed or endorsed it.

It protects the integrity of sport

Alberta’s standard keeps high-school and U18 sport off the board (s. 4.6.5). But today’s under-18 athletes are tomorrow’s junior, university and pro athletes. The day they turn 18, s. 4.6.1 bars them from betting on events in their sport. Integrity habits formed early protect the honesty of the sport that Alberta’s regulated market depends on.

It reaches your customers as parents

Some of your adult customers are raising teenage athletes. The in-product family-guide message gives them responsible-gambling content they can use at home, and points them to GameSense’s resources for parents.

Independent, evaluated, established

Independently governed, publicly audited and independently evaluated. Built to deliver established content: we intend to seek to become the Alberta delivery partner for the Responsible Gambling Council’s Beyond the Game, subject to RGC’s agreement, with an Alberta module that maps to CALM curriculum outcomes.

And the honest limits. There is no marketing value here. No athlete association, no credit on any program, and no visibility to young people. If an internal case needs any of those to get approved, it belongs in a different budget, with a different organization.
The criticism, answered. Industry-funded youth education is criticized internationally, and the UK replaced voluntary industry funding with a statutory levy. We built AWARE against that criticism. Every funder and fee is published. An independent board majority is seated before any funding agreement is signed. No funder brand appears anywhere a young person will see it. Sessions are built to deliver established content, not material written for funders. And an independent evaluation is published in full.
What partnership includes

The seat at the table

Everything a partner receives is adult-facing. None of it reaches a young athlete.

Recognition

Named as a funder in the audited annual report and on this website, with the Founding Partner acknowledged first. Funder names never appear in sessions, materials or communications for under-18 athletes, schools or clubs.

Influence, honestly bounded

Founding and Supporting Partners hold a seat on the Partner Council: non-voting, meeting twice a year, and advising on operations only: how AWARE’s messages are distributed in partners’ products, and the format of partner reporting. It has no say over curriculum, research questions, ambassadors or campaigns, or over which teams, schools or clubs are served, or when. No board seats are available at any level. The full limits →

Funding acknowledgment, adults only

Use of your partner mark as a plain funding acknowledgment, only in your corporate, ESG, responsible-gambling and regulator-facing materials and on your corporate RG page. Never in advertising or marketing, including responsible-gambling advertising, and never with any reference to young people, teams, schools, athletes or ambassadors. We review each new use in advance.

Outcomes

An annual partner briefing: sessions delivered, athletes reached and evaluated outcomes. These are the same results we publish to everyone, plus how your money was spent.

Pooled, by design

Every partner’s money goes into one fund. No partner is credited on, or connected to, any program, session, ambassador or school. That keeps the work independent, and keeps your name away from minors.

Trust

Full financial transparency: audited accounts your own compliance team can cite without qualification.

No operator influences programming decisions, curriculum content, which ambassadors deliver it, or which teams, schools or clubs are served. The board governs independently. That independence is the reason a partner association means anything to a regulator, a school, a coach or a parent.
The commitment

Three levels. Thirteen positions. Then it’s closed.

These are recognition levels, not packages: every dollar goes into one pooled fund. Year-one pricing is locked for the full term, with no escalation clauses. Funded by partners and earned revenue. The model assumes no government grants or donations, but if public or philanthropic co-funding is offered on the same independence terms, we will take it and publish it.

Where the money goes (draft Year 1 budget, for board adoption). Built on $350,000 of partner funding: 150 Team Sessions reaching about 3,000 under-18 athletes, 20 screened and trained ambassadors, 100 coaches and athletic directors briefed, and a Family Guide in 2,000 households. Roughly 45% people, 23% delivery, 13% independent evaluation, 12% audit, legal and governance, 3% safeguarding and 4% operations. No staff are hired until the funding that pays for them is signed.
Founding Partner
$150,000
per year · 3-year term · $450,000 total · fixed
Founding funder recognition The sole Founding Partner of Alberta’s independent youth betting-risk education program for the full three years. This is recognition, not rights over content: it comes with no athletes, no program credit, no editorial say, and no exclusivity over who else may fund the work.

Why it is the largest commitment. The Founding commitment is what launches the program. Under our draft budget, no staff are hired until it is signed.

  • Acknowledged first in the annual report and on this website
  • Permanently recognized as the founding funder; no later entrant can buy that designation (mark use ends with the term)
  • The ‘AWARE Founding Partner’ mark in your corporate, ESG, RG and regulator-facing materials, never in advertising, with each new use reviewed in advance
  • A non-voting Partner Council seat, on operations only
  • Annual outcomes briefing

For clarity on what this designation does and does not include, particularly that we never supply athletes as marketing talent, see What isn’t for sale.

Supporting Partner
$60,000
per year · 2-year term

Recognized as a funder of the whole program, not any part of it. Your contribution joins the pooled fund with every other partner’s. There are no program slots, no category exclusivity, and no credit on any session, ambassador or school.

  • Named in the annual report and on this website
  • The ‘AWARE Supporting Partner’ mark in your corporate, ESG, RG and regulator-facing materials, never in advertising, with each new use reviewed in advance
  • A non-voting Partner Council seat, on operations only
  • Annual outcomes briefing
Community Partner
$20,000
per year · 1-year term

The credible entry point, priced so a smaller Alberta entrant can decide in one meeting rather than one quarter.

  • Named in the annual report and on this website
  • The ‘AWARE Community Partner’ mark in your corporate, ESG, RG and regulator-facing materials, never in advertising, with each new use reviewed in advance
  • Annual outcomes briefing
In-product messages are a condition, not a tier. Every partner at every level carries AWARE’s own help messages to its adult customers. They appear on responsible-gambling and help screens only, shown to logged-in, age-verified customers, and never on a promotional surface, in the sign-up or onboarding flow, or next to odds, bet slips or offers. The messages are “Never harass a player over a bet,” and a parent message, “Talking to your kids about sports betting? AWARE’s free family guide.” These are AWARE’s messages, not partner advertising of AWARE, so the partner adds no name, mark or funding statement to them. We write the content, and the partner’s compliance team clears placement. It is not priced, not optional and not tradeable, so our reach to adults never depends on who paid the most.
Before anything is signed. Three founding directors, with a co-founder as interim chair; an independent majority is being recruited before any funding agreement is signed. If a regulator raises a concern about our model, we will address it, changing the model where needed, before anything is signed, and tell you what changed. Under our draft agreement (subject to legal review), no fee is payable until a majority of our directors are independent. If a regulator removes a benefit, the fee is adjusted, or, where that benefit was a substantial part of the value, either side may exit with a pro-rata refund. And you may end the agreement if we lose our independent majority, stop publishing audited accounts, or change an evaluator’s findings, and do not put it right within 30 business days.
‘Trained by AWARE’ staff seminar · $10,000 per cohort. A three-hour responsible-gambling seminar for operator staff, with a record of completion. It is not a certification. Open to partners and non-partner licensed operators alike. Details below. Pilot cohort summer 2027.
Resources

Read. Respond. Talk.

Three doors, one conversation. Full partnership terms are on this page and on What isn’t for sale.

01 · Read

The recognition levels, the limits and the commitment, all on this page, with every limit also published at What isn’t for sale. A printable version will follow.

The recognition levels ↑ What isn’t for sale →

02 · Respond

You’ve read the terms. Now tell us what holds up. Our confidential consultation takes about three minutes.

Open the consultation →

03 · Talk

A direct conversation with our co-founder and interim chair: thirty minutes, your questions, no deck.

Request a conversation ↓
~3 minutes · 7 questions · confidential
Request a conversation

Thirty minutes, your questions

We are glad to answer questions now. No agreement will be signed until a majority of our directors are independent.

‘Trained by AWARE’ staff seminar

Responsible-gambling training for your staff, from an independent Alberta foundation.

A three-hour responsible-gambling seminar for operator staff, delivered by the Foundation: player-safety fundamentals, recognizing at-risk behaviour, Alberta’s referral pathways, and the conversations frontline teams actually face, including the ones about athletes and integrity. Each participant receives a record of completion for your training file. It records training; it does not certify you or your responsible-gambling program. It is not AGLC-approved training, and it does not by itself meet any SRIG or RG Check requirement. ‘Trained by AWARE’ may not be used in any advertising, marketing or customer-facing material. Open to partners and non-partner licensed operators alike. Our university athlete ambassadors are never involved; they have no contact with funders or operators.

$10,000 per cohort · flat rate · open to any licensed Alberta operator

Pilot cohort summer 2027. Register interest below and we’ll hold your place.