Sports betting in Canada has been legal since August 27, 2021, when the Parliament of Canada passed Bill C-218 to amend the country’s criminal code. In the years since, the industry has exploded, with retail and online sports betting now legal in every province and territory.
Here we’ll track the growth of the Canadian sports betting market, covering key statistics, current trends, and the state of the industry in general. Let’s get into it.
History of the Canadian Sports Betting Market
Before sports betting was legalized in Canada, the size of the Canadian market was difficult to estimate. Parliament, legislators, and other stakeholders speculated the grey and black-market sportsbooks accounted for over C$14 billion in revenue. Legalizing sports betting nationwide would allow the government to obtain a sizeable portion of that sum, they argued.
More recent research says that the C$14 billion estimate from 2021 was a huge overstatement. Cardus, a leading Canadian think tank, called the C$14 billion assumption “misleading” since it was based on data from the more established United States market.
Even said, the fact this estimate was off doesn’t negate the size of the pre-legalization Canadian sports betting market. Other approximations say the market could have been worth upwards of C$1 billion, still a substantial number.
Key Stats and Facts About the Canadian Sports Betting Industry
For further proof of the robust sports betting market, you just have to look at how fast the market grew after legalization. According to Statista, online sportsbooks in Canada generated C$1.3 billion dollars in revenue during the first 16 months of legal wagering.
Online sports betting revenue in Canada has increased every year since 2021. See below a full breakdown, year by year:
- 2021: C$380 million
- 2022: C$936 million
- 2023: C$1.14 billion
- 2024 (projection): C$1.34 billion
The number of bettors, average revenue per player, and market penetration percentage have also increased year-on-year at similar rates to the growth of sports betting revenue overall.
These numbers tell us that sports betting was already a large industry in Canada pre-legalization. If there wasn’t an established base of sports bettors in Canada in August 2021, when Parliament legalized this form of gambling, we wouldn’t have seen these revenues in 2021 and 2022.
Another explanation for these high baseline numbers is because the country is full of sports fans. Canada is home to seven of the NHL’s 32 hockey teams, having won nearly half of all Stanley Cup Finals since 1915. With a Canadian population of over 40 million people, there are also plenty of soccer, NFL, and MLB fans. Basketball is also hugely popular, with the Toronto Raptors lifting the Larry O’Brien Championship Trophy in the 2019 NBA Finals.
This enormous fan interest meant the legalization of sports betting opened the market to new and casual fans who weren’t interested in placing wagers previously. Having legal options made it easy for players to start betting on sports in Canada. This point comes sharply into focus when you look at its market penetration.
When Parliament legalized sports betting in 2021, its market penetration in Canada was just 15.9%. By 2024, that number has grown to 48.8%. This makes sports betting more popular, on average, than in the United Kingdom, United States, and Australia.
Ontario Leads the Way for Legal Online Sports Betting in Canada
Unlike Quebec, British Columbia, and some of Canada’s other provinces, Ontario decided to open up its sports betting market to offshore operators. This decision has been very profitable for the province.
In April 2022, a new online gambling agency, iGaming Ontario, opened its iGaming market to Canadian betting sites and Ontario online casinos. During the first year of legal online gambling, operators in the province brought in C$1.4 billion in revenue. Online sports betting accounted for about 25% of that revenue.
According to iGaming’s Ontario Full Year Market Performance Report, basketball was the most popular choice for Ontarians. Twenty-nine percent of all wagers were placed on basketball. Soccer was the second-most popular sport, making up 15%, while American football came in third with 13% of total wagers. Nine percent of all wagers were on ice hockey, and baseball was fifth out of the major sports, totalling 8% of the market.
The Bright Future of Sports Betting in Canada
As we’ve shown, sports betting is big business in Canada, and analysts expect it will grow significantly more.
Statista predicts the Canadian market to generate over C$1.5 billion in revenue in 2025. By 2029, they predict this number could inflate to C$2 billion. Furthermore, analysts also expect sports betting to cross the 50% market penetration mark by sometime in 2024 with an estimated 25 million participants. By 2027, market penetration is predicted to be around 59% with a forecasted 24 million users.
Canada’s current and predicted levels of market penetration are off the charts. For context, the USA, one of the world’s fastest growing sports betting, is forecast to reach just 14% by 2027, while estimations have the UK and Australia’s 2029 market penetration rate at less than 20%.
It’s fair to say that unless the government does a massive U-turn on legal sports betting, the Canadian market could become one of the five biggest in the world over the next decade.
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