Sports Betting Canada – Best Online Sportsbook Sites

Sports betting is the perfect companion to watching your favourite sports! This online sports betting Canada guide will show you how to place sports bets and assist you in choosing a trusted online sports betting Canada site in for real money wagering. We cover all of the sports betting basics, from the different types of wagers you can make to tips for making the most of your sports betting experience. Check out our top sports betting sites in Canada, and don’t forget to claim a bonus before you start betting!

Top Online Betting Sites Canada

If you want to bet real money on sports in Canada, here are our favourite sites:

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What Sports Can You Bet On?

NHL Hockey Betting

Hockey is Canada's National Winter sport, and NHL hockey is incredibly popular to watch and bet on — plus, you can bet on hockey leagues from around the world.

NFL Football Betting

NFL football is arguably the most popular sports league to bet on. Get ready for the Super Bowl, along with betting on the Canadian Football League.

NBA Basketball Betting

NBA basketball is wildly popular around the world. From futures, to live betting, and spreads — you name it, you can bet on it in NBA basketball.

Formula 1 Betting

Formula 1 racing has exploded in popularity in North America, and yearly Montreal race is a great time for Canadians to wager on the drivers!

What Other Sports Can You Bet On?

Of course, there are many more options for online sports betting. You can also wager on these competitions, and plus numerous others:

Online Baseball Betting – Major League Baseball is a great sport to follow in the warmer months, and there are plenty of betting options on the baseball diamond
Online Horse Racing – The ‘Sport of Kings’ is one of the most popular sports for betting in the entire world!
Online Golf Betting – Wager on the best golf players teeing it up each week on the PGA Tour and around the world.
Online Soccer Betting – Major League Soccer is popular among Canadian bettors, but so is the English Premier League, La Liga, Serie A, and the Bundesliga.
Online MMA Betting – Mixed mixed arts is a tough game, and so is betting on it. Wager on the UFC, Bellator, and more.
Online Boxing Betting – “The Sweet Science” is still a popular option at sports betting sites, from the big fights to the weekly events.

How to Place a Sports Bet

Register at a Sportsbook and Make a Deposit

Having decided on your chosen sportsbook by looking at all the factors listed here, the first step towards sports betting is to register for a free account. When done, log in and head to the cashier to make your first deposit. Make sure to pick up a free bonus to boost your bankroll!

Research Your Bet

Once the deposit has cleared, spend a little time familiarizing yourself with the terms, conditions and betting rules on the sports betting site. Then it’s time to research your bet. If you already have a prediction in mind, right on! If you need a little help, take a look at what some other sportsbooks have listed to compare.

Place Your First Bet

Navigate to the event and bet you want to make. If you like the odds, click on the bet and populate the generated slip with the amount you’d like to wager. Double-check the entire betting slip, and confirm it to place your first sports betting wager.

Compare Canadian Sports Betting Sites

Compare the top sites for online sports betting in Canada, contrasting their welcome bonuses, the sports you can bet on, payout times and much more.

Tips for Choosing an Online Sportsbook

Please do your homework before joining any online sports betting site in Canada. Rest assured, however, that the online betting sites mentioned above are all highly reputable. Our list of trustworthy sportsbooks will subsequently help you avoid the time-consuming and confusing process of comparing the various sportsbooks against each other in order to match yourself with the best sportsbook site for you.

Pick a Site With a Good Welcome Online Casino Bonus

Make sure you get your money's worth

Though most online sportsbooks offer smaller welcome bonuses than most online casinos do, you can still collect some great bonuses when you make your first deposit. Make sure to check if a sportsbook has a good welcome bonus, deposit bonuses, or recurring promotions to make sure you get the best bang for your buck.

Learn All You Can About the Deposit Options

Do your research before signing up and placing bets

Read everything you can about the site, the betting opportunities it offers, all available sports promotions, whether it is available for mobile betting, and its various online casino deposit options. You should also take time to check out its customer service options, as well as familiarize yourself with the ease of its user interface.

Furthermore, you should read through the terms and conditions of the betting site, especially in regards to the various bonuses in offers in order to avoid any unwelcome surprises. Most bonuses and site offers (for example, the sign-up bonus) have a wagering requirement (sometimes called a rollover requirement), which means you would have to bet a given amount to make the bonus complete.

Also, be sure to check the minimum and maximum deposit and withdrawal limits to ensure that they fit your bankroll.

Use the Betting Site's Resource Section

All the info you need at your fingertips

If you are a complete novice sports bettor and wish to learn how to place bets, plenty of betting sites will provide you with a step-by-step guide to betting. These are generally very useful and will help you start betting quickly, whether it’s betting on the Super Bowl in the NFL, March Madness in online NCAA college basketball betting, Stanley Cup in the NHL, the MLB World Series, or any other sports event.

Canada Sports Betting Blacklist

Gamble Online’s high standards and review process learned the following Canadian sportsbooks failed to meet the requirements of our top-rated recommended outlets. For more information, please check out our How We Rate section.

WinPalace Casino
- Slow Payouts
- Frequent User Complaints
Slots Jungle Casino
- Denied Payouts
- Poor Customer Service

Top Canadian Online Sports Betting Sites

Not all sports betting sites in Canada are created equally. Depending on what you want out of a sportsbook, there are many different sites to suit your needs. Here we’ve sorted out the best sports betting sites for different needs so you can find a site that works best for you.

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#1 Sportsbook

Bodog

Best For

All Bettors

Bodog is the Canadian counterpart to top US sportsbook Bovada. Whether you want to bet on sports, horse racing, or even take a leisurely break with some of your favourite casino games, Bodog can meet all of your gambling needs. Bodog is our top online sportsbook for a reason – with industry-leading odds, 100s of daily props, and super speedy payouts, you can’t go wrong with this world-class site. They also have a refer-a-friend bonus, which gives you 200% up to $100 on your friend’s first deposit, with an extra $25 if they deposit with Bitcoin.

Best Bonus

100% up to $200

Bodog’s welcome bonus is easy to claim – simply deposit up to $200 and claim a 100% match. They also have a VIP program, which gives you the ability to earn points while wagering. There are six levels to the tiered system.

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Everygame

Best For

Refer-a-Friend Bonus

Everygame (previously known as Intertops) was the world’s first sports betting site, and they’ve maintained their stellar reputation to this day through a long tradition of integrity and a worldwide catalogue of satisfied clientele. Everygame offers 4,000+ daily wagers for all sports fans, and boasts one of the lowest minimum stakes on the internet. Through their refer-a-friend affiliate program, you can even earn a 35% commission for referring your friends and family to place their sports bets with Everygame.

Best Bonus

50% up to $200

Everygame actually offers three different versions of their first time deposit bonus based on how much you want to deposit – 200% up to $50, 100% up to $100, and 50% up to $200.

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Betway

Best For

Avid Bettors

Betway is a favourite sportsbook in dozens of countries across the globe. They’ve been an industry leader since their conception in 2006 and maintain their popularity by offering a wide variety of betting categories, a well designed site, and 1000s of prop specials. Betway also offers live betting, which many sportsbooks haven’t jumped on yet. If this is something you’re interested in, this may be the platform for you.

Best Bonus

100% up to $1,000

With the largest match bonus in the business, this is the perfect site if you plan on placing larger wagers. Betway also offers a loyalty program that rewards you based on your monthly wagering amounts.

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Bet365

Best For

Streaming Live Sports

You’ll find some of the best value odds at Bet365. In addition to being one of the biggest sportsbooks in the world, Bet365 also offers a nice selection of live dealer casino games if you want to take a break from sports betting. Their site is optimized for mobile use so you can easily place bets from anywhere at anytime. You can even find live streaming of sports on Bet365, so you’ll never miss a game.

Best Bonus

100% up to $100

Although they offer a lower welcome bonus, Bet365 is still perfect for more casual bettors, or for people who don’t want to wager large amounts of money.

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What Types of Sports Bets Can You Make?

Three of the most popular forms of online sports bets are moneyline, point spreads and totals (over/under). The information below explains each of these sports betting options offered at the sportsbook in simple to understand terms.

Moneyline Bets

An online moneyline bet is a sports wager on which team will win a particular game. The moneyline wager is the most popular way to bet on hockey and baseball, but exists also for basketball, football and other sports. In this type of bet, the payout is the same regardless of how many runs or points scored by the team you wagered on.

Placing moneyline bets requires that you first understand the American odds system, which always uses a 3-or-more digit whole number expressed as either positive or negative. The reason there are positive and negative moneylines is that the two teams are often not equally matched.

A negative moneyline, for instance, represents how much a bettor must stake to profit $100, with a line of -180 requiring a $180 bet in order to profit $100. Therefore, if your bet is successful, you keep the $180 you staked plus the extra $100 in winnings. Meanwhile, a positive moneyline is how much a $100 stake will pay. For example, if you stake $100 on a line of +160, if your bet wins, you keep the $100 you stake plus an extra $160 in winnings.

Point Spread Bets

Online point spread betting is the most popular way to bet on the most frequently wagered upon sports in Canada, namely hockey, football and basketball. The basic idea behind point spread betting is to make the sports game closer to a 50/50 proposition by adding a handicap.

For example, you could find they New York Giants +10.5, and the Philadelphia Eagles -10.5. How this works is that the favourite team always has a negative value alongside it, and the underdogs a positive value. In our example, the Philadelphia Eagles are the favourites to win by 10.5 points in this game. Meanwhile, the underdog in this game are the New York Giants, which has a +10.5 value, meaning online sports bettors will profit if the New York Giants win the game outright or lose by 10.5 points or less.

All point spread wagers also have a price or commission, which is otherwise not stated by the sportsbook, or Las Vegas sportsbooks is assumed to be -110. In other words, risk $110 to profit $100, or if simplified, every dollar bet you bet, the sportsbook receives 10 cents, rather than an even 50.50 line in which you bet a dollar to make a dollar. This extra price you’re charged is referred to as vig or juice and is how the sportsbooks make their profit.

When sports betting online, you’ll commonly find point spreads that have half points involved (example -2.5 / +2.5), thus ensuring there is no way for a sports bettor’s wager to be tied.

Totals - Over/Under Bets

Totals betting, or over/under betting is one of the easiest sports bets to understand. Here you bet on whether the total number of points scored by both teams combined during a game will be over or under the posted betting total.

For example, this bet might be over/under 8.5 runs in baseball; over/under 5.5 goals in hockey; over/under 40.5 points in football; over/under 200 points in basketball, etc. Similar to point spread betting, unless otherwise stated these bets are assumed to be offered at -110 (risk $110 to profit $100). Also similar to point spread betting, it’s also quite common in totals betting to see each option have a different price, such as over 5.5 -130 / under 5.5 +110.

Parlay Bets

A parlay bet is where you can place multiple wagers at the same time on one ticket. If you lose one bet, you lose all of your wagers from that ticket.

However, a bigger risk means a bigger potential payout if you do win. The more bets you make on one ticket, the more money is on the line to be won. Because of the risks involved, these bets are recommended for experienced bettors and not beginners.

Here’s an example of bets that might be on your parlay ticket: You could bet on Boston to win an MLB game at -110, Toronto and Montreal to score over 5 goals during a hockey game, and you bet on Tiger Woods to beat Phil Mickelson by 10 shots.

How Do You Win at Online Sports Betting Sites?

This sports betting in Canada guide will help you understand the basics of the industry.

Practice Patience

Online sports betting is extremely competitive, and people often beat the odds by exploiting leaks presented by online betting sites. Nevertheless, this is in an industry where it is hard to be profitable in the long run, and very few are destined to make a living betting on sports. In fact, the majority of sports bettors tend to be what we call recreational bettors.

Find Bonuses

On the plus side, there are tons of good bonus offers and promotions available with Canadian sports betting sites that can make your hobby profitable. Just be sure to stay disciplined, though, and never risk any more than a couple of percent of your bankroll on any given game.

Sports Betting Glossary

Below. you’ll find some of the most important terms for sports betting in Canada, with an accompanying definition.

1Q/1H/2Q/2H/3Q/4Q

shorthand for 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th quarter and 1st and 2nd half bets

Exotic

as the name indicates, exotics are another form of prop bet that gets a little weird sometimes. For example, what will happen first Philip Rivers delivers their next baby or Rivers decides to retire?

F5

a baseball bet term for first five innings

Juice/Vig

is another term for cost of placing a bet and is easier to show an example than define. When you look at a moneyline bet on an oddsboard, it’ll look something like: Bills -125 Jets +120

L5 / L10

shorthand for last five games, last 10 games

Moneyline (ML)

another term for an outright win sports bet. When betting the moneyline you believe one of the two teams (or player) will win the event.

Parlay

a multi-game, multi-event bet, in which 2-or-more wagers must be correct in order for the ticket to cash. Because you are betting on more results to happen successfully, parlay bets often enjoy great odds than single bets.

Point Spread

a type of bet where one team must win by a certain amount of points or the other team must lose within a certain number of points. For example, Browns (-7) vs Jets (+7) means the Browns must win by more than 7 points to win or the Jets must lose by fewer than 7 points or win outright. If the final score is Browns 28 Jets 21, the bet is a PUSH.

Point Total (Total)

also know as an Over / Under bet, is one when you must guess whether the total points scored will be over or under a certain number

Prop/Proposition Bet

these typically have to do with a certain player or team achieving a certain goal threshold within an event. An example of a prop bet would be Todd Gurley OVER/UNDER 65 rushing yards against the Seahawks.

Puck Total

the same as point total, but applied to hockey

Push

a sports betting term for a tie and wagers are returned to the player

Run Total

the same as point total, but applied to baseball.

Slip / Ticket

Another word for bet slip in which your wager is printed on

Specials

an off-shoot of prop bets, specials are unique to a certain time frame. For example, during MLB playoffs, who will score more points/runs, the Redskins or Nationals?

Teaser

similar to a parlay, a teaser contains multiple event bets where the point spread and/or totals can be adjusted by “buying” points.

An example of this would be a 2-team, 6-point teaser where the Browns are originally -6 (6-point favorites, must win by 7) and Seahawks are -3 (3-point favorites, must by 4), but with the 6-point teaser, you move the spread to Browns (EVEN, all they need to do is win) and Seahawks (+3, they can win or lose by 2 or 1) and still win the bet.

Tilting

when you start betting with uncontrollable emotion

Online Sports Betting FAQs

Yes, it is 100% legal to place bets on sports online in Canada. Residents of Canada's provinces can find real money offshore sportsbooks like the ones listed on this page. In addition to these, most provinces have provincially owned and operated sportsbooks attached to their lottery corporations that residents can bet at. Bill C-218 was passed in August 2021 allowing each province to decide how they wanted to proceed with sports betting regulation. Betting on sports online is completely safe as long as you use a trustworthy Canadian online sportsbook. Although there are some rogue operators out there, most online gambling sites are run by legitimate organizations with extensive security measures. All online sportsbooks we list on this page are approved by third-party independent auditors who have strict regulations on security and fair play.

Yes. Horse racing and betting on horse racing is completely legal in every province in Canada.

The most popular bets that you will find at online sportsbooks are moneyline bets, point spread bets and totals (over/under), which are described in detail on this page. You can also parlay picks by choosing multiple games on one ticket for a larger payout. Lots of sports bettors will also place future bets at, predicting an outcome that will come at the end of the season.

What's the point in gambling online for real money if you can't withdraw your winnings? Luckily, all of the sites that we recommend offer a variety of safe deposit and withdrawal options, including most major credit cards, Bitcoin, PayPal, e-check and more! We make sure that all sportsbooks that we recommend have a good track record of paying their players.

Traditional sports books only allow you to place bets on games before they start. Live sports betting allows players to continuously place wagers during a game with the odds adjusting as the game plays on. With live betting, you can place all sorts of different bets and cash out on some bets before the game even end!

The spread is how sportsbooks attract bettors to place action on either side of the competition. The spread represents how much one team is favoured over another in a given game, match, race or event. Take the following situation: Team A: -3.5 Team B: +3.5 By betting Team A, you win your bet if they win by 4 or more points. If you bet the spread on Team B, they can lose by 3 points or fewer, or win outright in order to win your bet.

Like any form of gambling, sports betting odds represent how likely something is to happen. If Team A is heavily favoured to win, their odds will not be as good as Team B, the underdog. A lot goes into determining the exact odds. Home/road records, rest schedule, weather and injuries play a major role when book makers are determining game odds.

You may have seen some famous handicappers bragging online about how much money they have made betting on sports. A successful sports gambler definitely needs a little bit of luck, anyone who has made a lot of money sports gambling still loses plenty of wagers. However, there are things you can do to improve your chances of turning a profit. By checking schedules, injuries and box scores daily and finding the online sportsbook listed here with the best odds, you can maximize the amount of real money you can win betting in sports online.

It is extremely rare that sportsbooks would allow you to bet for free. If you could, you likely would not win any real money. That said, many sportsbooks offer bonuses or free bets after you have reached a given requirement.

Dave Consolazio

Dave Consolazio has been passionate about writing and sports journalism since his high school years. He has a degree in Broadcast Journalism from USC where he worked with the school's radio and television stations. His work has been featured in SportsbookReview, Sports Illustrated and SB Nation. Dave's experience ranges across multiple fields in the gambling industry. You can find his sports, casino, and poker articles in GambleOnline.co.

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