Single-game action
One of the biggest reasons for a perceived small sports betting industry in Canada is the fact that single-event sports betting isn’t yet allowed throughout the country. Domestic sports betting entities are usually run by each province’s gaming commissions, which don’t allow for single event wagers. Instead, bettors have the option to place parlay wagers through these entities.
Parlay bets are fun, in that they offer large payouts on a small amount risked, but that is because they come with plenty of risk of their own. For a parlay to hit, every leg of the wager needs to be successful with no margin for error. As a result, the win probability of these parlays is lower than it would be for a single-game bet. That leads to bettors usually preferring to bet on single events.
Without the capacity for single-event wagers, bettors in Canada are often forced to resort to betting at offshore sites instead. There is nothing wrong with doing this, but it can have an impact on the size of the sports betting industry in a country when they can’t accept the kinds of bets that their players want to make. In fact, it’s entirely possible that the sports betting industry is bigger in Canada than many thing, it’s just hard to see that without the ability to bet domestically on single events.
Changes coming?
Fortunately, though, that may be starting to change for Canadians. Ontario is in the process of introducing single-event sports betting in response to states in the United States that are nearby offering sports betting in the near future. This should help grow the industry in Canada, and it could end up prompting other provinces to follow suit.
With sports betting being as popular as it is around the world, there is no reason that Canada shouldn’t get into the game to the fullest extent that it can. And if they are successful in bringing single-game sports betting to the country, there will likely be a period of growth in Canadian sports betting that will bring it up to speed with the rest of the world in a hurry. The following bookmakers are a good starting point.