Editor’s note: Ontario sports betting officially launched on April 4, 2022. Here is a list of the best legal betting sites in Ontario:
New in Ontario
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It’s been years in the making, but on Monday — perhaps as early as 12:01 a.m. — there will be a major change to sports betting in Ontario.
Currently, there is just one company in Canada’s most populous province that is legally providing online sports betting, the government-owned Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp. via its PROLINE+ sportsbook.
On April 4, though, Ontario will debut a competitive market for internet gambling, which will permit private-sector operators of online sportsbooks and casinos to start legally taking wagers in the province. More than a dozen iGaming operators could open their digital doors on Monday, including BetMGM, BetRivers, and FanDuel.
"We're so thrilled to open our Canadian office and bring FanDuel's world-class Sportsbook and Casino to Canada's passionate sports fans," FanDuel Group CEO Amy Howe said in a press release on Thursday. "This is a huge moment for the industry and we look forward to providing Canadians with entertaining and responsible sports experiences."
So, what’s changing?
On Monday, bettors in Ontario who are 19 or older can start using the websites and apps of authorized iGaming operators, and not just that of OLG. Players don’t necessarily need to be from Ontario, but they must be in the province to play (although they can register and manage their accounts from anywhere).
Before launching in the new iGaming market, sportsbooks must receive their operator registration from the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO) and execute an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario, a government agency and AGCO subsidiary. The telltale sign for players that they are using an authorized gaming site will be the presence of the iGaming Ontario logo.
“To complete these steps, these organizations will have met rigorous standards of game integrity, fairness, player protections and social responsibility,” iGaming Ontario’s website says. “Their sites will have controls preventing underage access and measures to enable more responsible gambling. They have entered legal agreements ensuring compliance with applicable laws, including anti-money laundering.”
Another change is that operators that have previously taken bets from within Ontario must settle any of those outstanding wagers before they can go live in the new regulated market.
“It is up to the individual Operator to determine the process by which bets are resolved,” iGaming Ontario told Covers last week.
Daily fantasy sports is also affected by Ontario’s new iGaming market. Major DFS operators DraftKings and FanDuel have said they will stop offering contests in the province due to provincial regulations, which require all players to be in Ontario to participate.
“Any games involving liquidity pools outside of Ontario are prohibited at this time,” iGaming Ontario says.
What will I be able to bet on?
A lot.
Allowable sports betting under the AGCO’s standards includes: “single-game bets, teaser bets, parlays, over-under, moneyline, pools, exchange betting, in-game betting, proposition bets, and straight bets.”
AGCO standards allow for a pretty wide variety of sports to wager on as well, as long operators stick to the regulator's guidelines.
In fact, there is only one league mentioned by name in the standards whose games can’t be bet on: the Canadian Hockey League. Betting on minor-league sports is not allowed in Ontario's iGaming market (the majority of participants in a bettable league must be 18 or older), meaning matches played by the Peterborough Petes, Ottawa 67's, and others are all off-limits.
Another banned offering will be virtual sports. Those are a "computer-generated presentation of a random number draw" that may look like a real sporting event but are not.
There are additional restrictions regarding horse racing. While comments from the AGCO suggested there may be a way for iGaming operators to offer it, the regulator subsequently clarified that's currently not the case.
Betting on "The Sport of Kings" will instead remain under federal oversight and subject to the pool-like model of wagering used in Canada. Bookmakers migrating over from the "grey market" may need to tweak their offerings as a result.
"It’s important to note that the regulated igaming market framework in Ontario does not allow for horse racing at this time," AGCO spokesperson Jenna Mannone said in an email. "To clarify my earlier statement, the current requirements to offer betting on horse racing requires the race track operator, not the iGaming Operator, to get a federal betting permit from the Canadian Pari-Mutuel Agency (CPMA)."
Why is this happening?
One of the biggest reasons for Ontario’s online gaming overhaul is because residents of the province are already wagering over the internet. The issue with that wagering, however, is that it is mostly happening with sites and operators that may be regulated somewhere in the world, but not in the province.
It’s estimated that the ongoing action is pretty sizable, too. The Ontario government said last July that Ontarians were gambling nearly $1 billion a year over the internet and that somewhere around 70% of that action was being placed at "unregulated, grey market" websites.
"One of the key objectives behind Ontario’s new igaming market is to bring sites Ontarians are already gambling on under regulation so that they can be held to high standards of responsible operations, player protections and game integrity," the AGCO's Mannone said.
Following the 2018 provincial election, which brought Premier Doug Ford and the Progressive Conservatives to power, the Ontario government announced in its 2019 budget that it planned to create a "competitive market" for online gambling that would provide more choice and protection for consumers.
The budget also noted that a key part of the gambling strategy was the legalization of single-game sports betting, which provinces had long been forbidden from offering. That change needed to be made by federal lawmakers, not provincial ones, which happened in the summer of 2021.
Around the same time, the Ontario government announced the incorporation of iGaming Ontario.
“Following Parliament’s historic vote to lift the prohibition on single-event sport wagering last month, the establishment of iGaming Ontario is another pivotal milestone in our work to ensure people have access to a safe and regulated online gaming market by the end of the year,” Attorney General Doug Downey said in a July 2021 press release.
Now, Ontarians are about to reap what federal and provincial lawmakers have sown: a regulated iGaming market complete with single-game sports betting.
This story has been updated to clarify the rules regarding horse racing.
Are you in Ontario? Come join our Ontario Discord channel to chat with Covers personalities in real-time to get all the information you need to know ahead of and during launch week.
Changes to Ontario sports betting FAQs
On April 4, 2022, iGaming Ontario (iGO) launched a new and first-of-its-kind Canada-regulated internet gaming market in Ontario.
No. Sports bettors in Ontario, 19 years of age and older, can access new sportsbooks previously only available in the USA or international jurisdictions. The OLG-operated PROLINE+ sports betting site is still available but now competes with more than 20 operators.
