Everything Set for Ontario’s Sports Betting Expansion on April 4
While the US sports betting industry continues to expand at an accelerated pace, sports betting north of the border in Canada is starting to heat up as well.
Last August, a major change to the sports betting laws in that country should prove to be a game changer. Sports betting in Canada has been legal for the past few decades with one major caveat. The only legal bet that could be placed was on multi-team parlays.
Get sports picks for every league and nearly every matchup on Doc’s free picks page.
Canadian lawmakers amended the current rules to open the door to legal bets on single games and sporting events. Since the country’s online gaming industry is controlled by individual provinces through government-owned lottery corporations, the addition of single-game wagers has been slow to catch on.
As the most populated Canadian province, Ontario put a plan together to expand legal sports betting into the commercial sector. Prior to this planned expansion, PROLINE + was the only approved sports betting platform in this province through the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation (OLG).
With April 4 set as the targeted launch date, Ontario’s commercial sports betting industry is set to explode with as many as 16 sportsbook operators licensed and ready to go. Headlining that list is FanDuel as the biggest legal operator in the US market.
BetMGM, PointsBet and BetRivers are also on the list of that initial group of Ontario operators. The province is also lining up to be a truly international sports betting market with 888 Sport, bet365 and Unibet in the mix. Operators such as Fitzdares and Coolbet are making their first expansion into the North American market via Ontario.
The minimum age to legally gamble in Canada is 19 as opposed to most US states requiring bettors to be 21 or older. Each operator will be establishing their own individual mobile sportsbook app under sites such as FanDuel Sportsbook Ontario, theScore Bet Ontario and bet365 Ontario.
Following the initial launch on April 4, additional operators such as DraftKings, Betway, BallyBet and Caesars Sportsbook will be able to join the party. These operators are still working their way through the licensing process.
One of the regulations that will remain in place is the prohibition on adverting sportsbook promotional incentives such as free initial bets and matching bonuses on a new customer’s first deposit.
This restriction could actually benefit Ontario sportsbook operators. One of the biggest drains on the profit of US operators is the tremendous cost of advertising these types of promotional offers on top of the actual cost of free bets and deposit bonus offers.
The Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO) has released its modified iGaming go-live compliance guide. This covers all the various rules and regulations for operating in the Ontario market.
The AGCO continues to work with commercial sportsbook operators ahead of their planned launch in the province. To goal is to prepare both operators and gaming-related suppliers to remain compliant for all the posted rules and regulations.
While April 4 is the official date to go live, most licensed operators will be working on their own specific time frame to launch. This means that Ontario’s commercial sports betting and iGaming industry will continue to expand in the coming weeks and months.
While this whole process has had its fair share of bumps along the way, the expectation level for all vested parties with skin in the game remains high. Ontario has the potential to grow into a major sports betting market in North America. This province could also provide a working model for other Canadian provinces looking to expand their sports betting and iGaming industry into the commercial sector.
Get expert sports picks on every game, or if you want our very best bet premium picks by the experts, sign up for your free $60 account with a guarantee.
Most Recent Sports Handicapping
- Big Problems to Profits: How One Bettor Found the Cheat Code to Beat the Sportsbooks
- Which US States Earn the Most Taxes from Casinos and Sports Betting?
- Olympics Men’s Golf Props with Odds and Betting Predictions
- 2024 Olympic Men’s 3x3 Basketball Betting Odds and Predictions
- Olympics Medal Counts by Country: Over and Under Best Bets
- My Journey with Doc's Sports: from Fan to Fact-Finder to Family
- 2024 College World Series Betting Odds and Predictions
- WAGs of MLB: Who has the largest social media following and earning potential?
- A Statistical Analysis of NCAA Athlete NIL Earning Potential
- College Baseball National Championship Odds and Expert Predictions