ONLINE BETTING IN CANADA

Depending on which sportsbook you are using, some may take you straight to the registration page as soon as you land there. If that isn’t the case, there should be a prominent button stating ‘register’ or ‘sign up’ and this is likely to be located in the top right hand corner of the homepage.

Registration forms will ask for name, date of birth, address and other essential personal details. You may also be asked to set up a username and choose your default currency. Lastly, you should expect to have to provide ID to confirm your status.

Any Canadian company offering sports betting and casino services in Canada has to pass strict government legislation before they can set up business. Full details of the license in question should be set out in detail at the bottom of their homepage.

Those restrictions do not apply to operators from overseas and that’s why Canadian players will see a number of global brands providing those services. In summary, always look for details of licensing and regulation.

Funding options can be down to personal choice but most players will expect to see a good range of deposit and withdrawal methods. The most popular of these are debit and credit cards and all operators should take all the major Visa and Mastercard suppliers.

Anyone wishing to stay loyal to Canadian companies should look for InstaDebit and IDebit. Sportsbooks and casinos based in Canada are likely to have these on their roster while more and more global brands are adding these two to their list.

Players should also look out for eWallets which store your money safely and securely. Examples include PaySafeCard, echeck, entropay, clickandbuy, ecopayz and interact.

Most online sportsbooks and casinos recognise that many players like to bet ‘on the go’ and to be able to place a bet even if they are away from their static PC or home-based laptop.

Virtually every operator now has a dedicated mobile site and an app but for greater flexibility and ease of use, we recommend downloading the app onto your phone. This allows for players to find the site without having to get on their browser and it’s simply the quickest way to get involved.

To download, simply head for the app store, search for the bookmaker in question and follow the instructions. This should be free and you’re ready to go in seconds. If you don’t have enough memory on your phone then you can simply navigate to the mobile site but we would suggest using the app as a preference.

The first point to mention when answering this question is that you should make sure your sportsbook is licensed and regulated. So, head down to the bottom of the homepage to check this point. Your next stop is the about us page where details of security are kept. Study those and you can gain peace of mind in regard to the safety of your deposits and withdrawals.

The benefit of using a third party provider such as an eWallet is the fact that the retailer will not see details of your card. Each of the methods listed above has their own security systems which you should check and you can then see how they will 100% guarantee your safety online.

In the physical world, the age rules for gambling are a little complicated. For example, if you intended to visit a casino in Alberta, Manitoba or Quebec, you can be 18 to play but for everywhere else, you must be 19.

That principle is then taken to the online tables so, if you are resident in anywhere other than those three regions specifically mentioned, you must be 19 to play. Otherwise 18 is fine but remember, you must provide official ID in order to confirm this.

The majority of states in Canada provide their own helplines for those who feel that they may have a gambling problem. These are usually toll free and provide professional help.

A full list of these sites can be found via the Canada Safety Council official website – https://canadasafetycouncil.org/gambling-addiction/

Across the world, there are three distinct ways in which to show odds and in Canada, the most common option is the American method. For this example, we’re going to bet on a Hockey team and we find odds listed at +200 on the American scale. We stake $10 and, if that team wins, our return is $30.

The remaining two options are Decimal and Fractional. If we use the above example, American odds of +200 will convert to 3.00 using the decimal system or, 2/1 if we’re talking about fractional. Whichever system you’re using, the return of $30 would the identical providing you use the same $10 stake and the selection wins.

Canadian betting companies are likely to set American odds as the default choice but, if you would prefer either of the other two, it should be easy to go into settings and change it to your own preference.

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Rules relating to Canadian betting means that customers based in the country cannot place a bet on a single outcome. While we’ve used a single stake to illustrate odds in the previous section, we did this for the sake of simplicity but it isn’t actually possible to do this in real life.

Canadians would therefore be required to place a Parlay bet. This is a stake made on two or more events coming in. So, if we come back to hockey, we would need to stake a fixed amount – say $10.00 – on two or more teams winning their games.

The straight result is also referred to as a moneyline bet and either term can be used by the sportsbook in question.

Away from moneyline betting, it’s common for Canadians to get involved in points spreads. These stakes are referred to as ‘handicaps’ in other parts of the world and, essentially, they give one team a notional head start above others.

Then we have prop bets: These can be described as bets on events during a game that don’t necessarily affect the outcome of the fixture itself. For example, a bettor can stake on total points in an NFL or CFL game or, they could bet on whether or not a tennis match will include a tie break.

In terms of most popular sports to bet on, all of the regular North American sports can be included. We’re talking about football, ice hockey, baseball and basketball. Outside of the core four, the majority of Canadian bettors also enjoy soccer, horse racing and tennis.

Most sportsbooks will include all of these options but can go deeper with markets for 30 sports or more.