Sports betting continues to soar to new heights. And while the whole industry is propelled by a more expansive, global push toward accessible gambling platforms, the impact of prominent nations like Canada slowly getting on board with legislation and regulating online gambling platforms correctly is one of many facets that has resulted in global iGaming evolving to such unprecedented heights.
I’ll look at how sports betting in Canada has evolved over the years. It follows a very different pattern from some prominent countries where gambling is also causing a stir and experiencing a boom period. Canada—alongside the US, the UK, Germany, and Australia—is now one of the top five gambling nations on the planet. Whichever way you look at it, it’s undeniably true, whether it’s the amount wagered per head of population, the revenue that gambling companies generate, or the number of people as a percentage of the population placing sports bets.
People usually see the headline—they’ll see Canada in the top five—but for any multi-billion-dollar market to rise to such stratospheric levels successfully, there’s often a story behind it, with many different variables at play.
North American Betting Landscape
North America has a different continental approach to regulating the gambling industry. This is to be expected, given the dynamics and geographical structures involved. From a legislative perspective, Canada and the US grant devolved powers at a state or provincial level. This is why Americans have gone to Las Vegas to gamble for years. They couldn’t access it anywhere else because Nevada was the only place with a monopoly for bettors.
I know that the situation has changed drastically since the early 2010s, but Canada also has a similar approach. Due to Canada's size, each province has its own powers and sets the gambling legislation up accordingly. At the same time, I wouldn’t say that this has caused a fractured approach to regulating gambling, whether sports betting or casino gaming. It has simply meant that certain provinces are further ahead of the curve than others.
Again, this mirrors what’s going on in the US, where the likes of Nevada are decades ahead when it comes to working with gambling companies. While certain states are catching up, others—such as Hawaii, Utah, and California—take a draconian approach to sports betting and deny any such notion when gambling companies attempt to lobby and set up their services within state lines.
While provinces got on board with sports betting at different speeds, you can now place sports bets in all 10 Canadian provinces, as long as they’re registered and licensed by the provincial body.
Formative Years of Canadian Sports Betting
Although some think Canadian sports betting only emerged over the last few years, the first law allowing people to place bets on sports was passed in the mid-1980s. Well, I say pass; it was partially lifted, and lottery gaming was the first thing that got through the doors and was legislated in 1969. Then, 16 years later, the federal legislation change brought both casino gaming and sports betting to a broader audience.
However, Canadians couldn’t bet on individual games or markets; this shift in legislation only meant that Canadians in certain provinces could place parlay bets at specialist, licensed vendors. The reasoning behind loosening this approach was that profits from the industry would cycle back to central and provincial governing bodies and charities to bolster local economies and projects.
Unchartered Terrain—1996, 2005, and Wider International Change
Canada found itself at a crossroads with gambling; given the advanced nature of the country's broader economy, more of its citizens became digitally literate. Ultimately, this led to a significant uptake in home computer purchases and a deeper understanding of how the Internet worked.
It also meant that Canadians had access to gambling websites, which were experiencing huge innovations in countries like the UK. The UK became the first country to pass landmark legislation in 2005 that incorporated digital gambling, and it is a blueprint that many countries, provinces, and territories still follow to this day when they construct their laws and regulations.
This law caused some hysteria when it was passed in 2005 - it was a game-changer, but it also created loopholes for Canadian bettors. Throughout the 2010s, it meant that sports betting evolved online, with UK companies allowing Canadian gamblers to register with their sites, but the provincial and federal laws were unable to extend their influence to these overseas companies.
So, while the industry was technically booming and more Canadians were placing sports bets online than ever before, very little of it was flowing back into the Canadian economy via tax. This posed a serious challenge for legislators, who felt they’d reached a point where they may have to legalise it and legislate it simply because of how significant the black market had become in the decade or so following the UK’s landmark legislative change.
The Dawn of a New Age—The 2020s and Beyond
Canada was much slower to get on the collective uptake and regulate online gambling than many other countries. However, the 2021 legislative change meant that more people could gamble online, and the devolved provincial powers meant that by 2022, a number of the most populated provinces had also pursued the idea of legislating and regulating online sports betting.
The Canadian market joined the likes of the UK and the US on a level playing field, which has led to exponential growth for sports betting platforms. Canadians in other provinces, such as Alberta, were keen to see their legislative bodies follow suit, which has since happened, and Albertans now have access to online sports betting markets, too.
The evolution of how people play has been fairly consistent worldwide. What I mean by this is that there’s been a shift from online websites to mobile app betting. There’s also been an increased interest in people seeking other forms of sports betting, including niche markets and virtual, and using alternate payment methods to place their bets.
Measuring Canadian Sport Betting Against Other Countries
Well, I’ll give you three guesses on Canada's number one sports betting market is? That’s right, you guessed it—tennis. Only joking, of course. It’s ice hockey; it’s basically a religion in Canada and is by far the most dominant sport.
The NHL is the stand-out ice hockey league globally. Although there are pockets of popularity in some Scandinavian countries, the brand has aimed to move into bigger markets to appeal to an international audience. Australia isn’t the country I’d have thought they’d be looking at, but the powers in the NHL have seen something Down Under that believes it’s worth a punt, and they are currently rolling out the sport to Australians.
Unlike the betting market in Australia, which has a stronger, rounded approach—with cricket, rugby, and Aussie rules all seeing a lot of action‚—ice hockey has somewhat of a monopoly on the current Canadian sports betting market. This has been the case for quite some time. Ontario was the first notable province to legalize online sports betting, and those companies that are based in the US and are keen on the Canadian market knew they would have to roll out more extensive NHL markets to capture the Canadian audience.
I’m not going to tell you that was some sort of genius insight—you only have to look at the TV viewing figures and social media impressions to see how much ice hockey dominates the airwaves in Canada. It’s similar to rugby in New Zealand or soccer in the UK—the big sports betting markets reflect the number of people who watch the sport. It’s an evolution that has transitioned seamlessly from land-based bookies to vast online platforms, where most of the action now occurs.
Final Thoughts
The future of Canadian sports betting is looking bright, and although it’s not unanimously praised across the board, the idea that it’s now legislated, instead of driven to digital black markets based overseas, can’t be seen as a bad thing by Canadian legislators.
Clearly, there’s the social element and the harms to consider that can stem from such accessible gambling. Unfortunately, there will be a percentage of people who develop problem gambling habits.
However, the flipside argument is that people would be doing this regardless. If legislators kept the market underground, these people would still develop problem gambling issues and there would be more of a taboo around seeking help for something that wasn’t legislated or managed by legislation.
A necessary evil is probably too strong a term, in my opinion, but the evolution of sports betting—which has meant that provinces can now tax, manage and monitor betting—is a natural, welcome step. Canadians follow the same sort of gambling patterns as their neighbours south of the border and UK gamblers across the pond.
While mobile apps continue to gain momentum, there’s still a healthy market for those looking to place bets on a PC or laptop, so don’t expect to see too much change in this landscape, nor ice hockey knocked off its perch as the number one Canadian sports betting market, anytime soon.
Rowan Fisher-Shotton has been a sports betting journalist for 6 years, specialising in major league North American sports like the NBA, NFL, and NCAA. His insight into emerging trends, coupled with his deep analysis, has made him a recognisable and respected name within the iGaming community. He now works as a prolific contributor and reviewer with GambleOntario, a major affiliate platform, amongst other freelancing work.
