GeoLocs on why operators are quietly changing geolocation providers

NEXT: What does the Alberta market launch mean for operators? 

Ben Scobie-Trumper: Everyone’s talking about customer acquisition right now, which makes sense. New market, new opportunity, lots of competition.  

But if I was an operator, I’d be paying just as much attention to the players I don’t acquire. 

Most operators know how many players passed a location check. They know how many deposited. They know how many converted. Very few know how many legitimate players tried to sign up, hit a location issue and simply left. 

That’s what makes Alberta interesting. It’s easy to think of geolocation as a compliance requirement, but in Alberta it’s also a customer experience issue. The province is huge. You’ve got players in major cities, players in smaller communities, players connecting in all kinds of different ways. That can create location signals that aren’t always straightforward. 

If your geolocation approach isn’t built for that, some legitimate players are going to hit friction when they shouldn’t. And in a brand-new market, that’s a problem. Because every player who gets frustrated during registration isn’t just a failed geolocation check, it’s a potential customer who may never come back. 

The challenge isn’t just staying compliant. It’s making sure Alberta players who are eligible to play can get through the process easily and start playing. 

NEXT: As GeoLocs was already operating in Alberta before the market opened, how did that experience benefit operators? 

BST: It meant we weren’t learning Alberta on launch day. One thing we’ve learned over the years is that every market has its own quirks. Alberta’s no different. 

You’ve got a large rural population, you’ve got people connecting through satellite services, you’ve got workers in industries like energy who might be using corporate networks that don’t always look straightforward from a geolocation perspective. 

The mistake is assuming that every unusual signal is a suspicious signal. A lot of the time it’s just a normal player connecting in a way that’s completely realistic for where they live or work. Because we’d already seen those patterns, we could help operators launch with a much better understanding of what normal actually looks like in Alberta. 

NEXT: What were the biggest challenges operators faced when entering a newly regulated market like Alberta? 

BST: I think one of the biggest challenges is knowing what your data is actually telling you. When a geolocation check fails, it’s easy to assume you’ve prevented a risky user from accessing your platform. Sometimes you have. 

But sometimes you’ve just lost a legitimate customer because the technology couldn’t confidently make a decision. Those are very different outcomes. 

The challenge for operators is understanding whether they’re preventing risk or creating unnecessary abandonment. That’s especially important in a new market where every customer is valuable and acquisition costs are high. 

That’s why visibility matters. A geolocation provider like GeoLocs allows operators to look beyond a simple pass-or-fail result and understand why a user was prevented in the first place. When confidence can’t be established automatically, operators can apply custom rules, provide guidance to the player or request additional verification to determine eligibility rather than immediately turning them away. 

The operators that do well won’t just be the ones that catch bad actors. They’ll be the ones that can tell the difference between a genuine threat and a legitimate player who simply needs another path to prove they’re eligible to play. 

NEXT: What early signals can you share from GeoLocs data that operators should be paying attention to as Alberta’s market takes shape? 

BST: One of the early signals we’re seeing in Alberta is that there are more grey-area cases than many operators expect. A lot of the location challenges we’re seeing aren’t obvious attempts to access a platform from outside the province. They’re situations where the player’s eligibility can’t be determined confidently in that moment. 

Alberta is a unique market in that respect. It’s a big province. You’ve got concentrated player populations in Calgary and Edmonton, but you’ve also got a lot of activity outside those areas. The result is a wider mix of devices, networks and location signals than some operators and geolocation providers are used to seeing. That creates a wider range of scenarios and a lot more edge cases than a simple pass-or-fail metric can capture. 

That’s why I’d pay close attention to uncertainty. If you understand what’s driving the uncertainty, you can make smarter decisions about whether that player should be guided through additional verification rather than simply being turned away. 

If you’re only measuring approvals and rejections, you’re missing a big part of the story. In Alberta, that distinction matters. The opportunity isn’t just identifying people who shouldn’t be there. It’s making sure legitimate players don’t get caught in the middle and walk away. 

NEXT: Now that Alberta is live, what should operators be thinking about? 

BST: I’d challenge operators to look at their location data differently. Don’t just ask, “How many players did we verify?” Ask, “How many legitimate players did we fail to verify?” That’s usually the harder question, and it’s the one that gets overlooked. 

The reality is that players don’t sit around troubleshooting location checks. If something doesn’t work, most move on. If you’re only measuring approvals and compliance outcomes, there’s a good chance you’re missing part of the picture. 

Alberta is going to be an incredibly competitive market. Operators have spent a lot of time planning how they’re going to acquire customers, but the next challenge is understanding where they’re creating friction for customers they’ve already acquired. 

I’d be paying close attention to the players who start the registration journey but don’t complete it. Where are they dropping off? What is causing those failures? Are they genuine compliance issues, or are they customers who need a little more guidance or verification before they can be approved? 

The operators that get ahead in Alberta will be the ones that identify those blind spots early. Not because they want to lower compliance standards, but because they understand that protecting the business and protecting the customer experience aren’t mutually exclusive. If you can keep bad actors out while making it easier for legitimate Alberta players to get through the door, that’s where the real advantage will come from over the next 12 months.