Canada Launches Multi-Billion Dollar Sports Betting Industry

07:35
02 Sep

In June 2021, the Canadian government signed into law a bill which legalised sports betting on single events for the first time in the nation’s history. The Safe And Regulated Sports Betting Act was passed, making an already multi-billion dollar industry fully legal, making citizens free to gamble if they wish.

David Lametti, the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada, said:

"Canadians will have the opportunity to participate in single-event sport betting in a regulated and safe environment, at the discretion of the provinces and territories."

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A New Era

The sports betting sector in Canada is a strange example compared with other regions. Unlike the USA, which in 2018 overturned a long-standing federal law preventing sports betting, Canada actually allowed wagering on sports providing it was on more than one selection.

This is known as a parlay in North America and an accumulator in Europe. Now, Canadians can have a flutter on a single event.

This move is well overdue. The Canadian federal government has known for a long time that the population spends more than CAD$10 billion on illegal betting conducted through purely black market channels. Another CAD$4 billion is estimated to flow out of the country into offshore markets using properly regulated sites that are legal outside of Canada.

Now the government will finally see some return into the tax coffers, which hopefully will encourage other politicians to see the benefits of legal gambling.

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What Does the Future Look Like?

Yahoo Finance reported that the “Canadian legal sports betting market could eventually generate $25 billion in retail and online wagering annually.” This is obviously a significant flow of capital that won’t go unnoticed around the world and has the potential to create multiple new major players in the world market.

Just like in the USA, the Canadian sports betting market will be decentralised. This setting up a province versus province dynamic is another factor at play, one that promises to push each region to attract new companies ready to fight for a slice of the new pie.

Dustin Gouker, lead analyst for the Play Network and PlayCanada, said:

"Because of that decentralization, many questions remain about what the Canadian market will look like once it has been built out. It is safe to say that at the moment sportsbooks view Canada as one of the largest single remaining opportunities in North America."

Ontario is bound to be the jewel in the nationwide sector. Analysts have predicted as much as $11.1 billion in annual revenue which will be a true heavyweight market.

We look forward to seeing what the gambling industry can come up with when starting from scratch but in a modern, developed country.