By S. Casineau
Canada is home to some excellent sportsbooks that excel when it comes to sports variety, bonuses, and betting markets. But with so much choice, it’s not always easy for Canadian bettors to make a solid decision regarding which betting sites to sign up to.
This is why we’ve done the research and carefully picked out the top Canadian sportsbooks today. Each one is fully-licensed and 100% legal to play in Canada, and they have all been selected according to strict criteria.
First Look:
1. Best overall betting site – Mansion Bet
2. Best sports betting site for casino games – Leo Vegas
3. Best online gambling site for sports variety – Bodog
Sports betting variety – When choosing the best sports betting sites Canada, the first thing we looked for was sports variety. In other words, how many major and minor sports are covered around the world, as well as how many leagues, tournaments and so on.
Bonuses – Welcome bonuses, reload bonuses and free bets are all part of the fun of betting on sports. The online bookmakers covered in our list all offer rewarding and regular bonuses, as well as exciting VIP programs.
Betting odds – The best sports betting apps offer the best odds. This is important because it ensures you maximize your profits and don’t feel short-changed.
Payment methods – The Canadian online betting sites we chose all offer a variety of payment methods, ranging from cards to eWallets to cryptos, so that there should be something for everyone.
Mansion Bet is an offshoot of Mansion Casino. It’s essentially part of the same parent company and belongs to the same brand, but it’s still a separate site all to itself.
What is it?
Where Mansion Casino is the online casino, Mansion Bet is the sportsbook. It’s only been established for a few years so far, but because it’s part of the Mansion brand, we can guarantee its trustworthiness. Moreover, its reputation precedes it, and this is a high quality sports betting site.
Like the online casino, Mansion Bet offers a very polished and professional betting experience. The user layout is smart and clean, and everything is easy to find. Sports variety is good – all the major sports are covered, while a surprising number of minor sports are also covered, including the likes of chess, darts and even bandy.
Naturally, the main focus here is on the major sports. When it comes to soccer, tennis, NFL and NBA, there are hundreds of markets you can choose from on a daily basis. For example, in an average soccer match you can bet on total goals, over/under, double chance, next team to score, correct score, asian handicaps and more.
Tennis, meanwhile, also lets you bet on a dizzying amount of markets, including handicaps, correct set score, over and under amount of games and so on.
Live betting is available. However, the caveat is that Mansion hasn’t yet added live streaming. We’re not sure when or if this will change in the future, but it’s an area we feel that Mansion Bet could improve on.
That said, most games come with an in-play graphic that helps you to stay informed of the action. For instance, in a tennis match you can see who’s serving, who has break-point and so on.
Most games also come with accompanying statistics that are updated constantly. In a soccer match you can see how many corners a team has so far, how many yellow cards et cetera.
This sort of up-to-date information helps you to make better, more informed bets. Moreover, we really like how the information is displayed – it’s easy on the eyes and fuss-free. It’s also located to the right of the screen, while all the betting markets are located in the centre.
Site navigation is excellent, everything is neatly arranged and there are separate bonuses for the sportsbook and online casino.
Fancy betting on sports and casino games?
While most of the best online betting sites give you the chance to do both, we think Leo Vegas does it better than most, largely thanks to the fact that Leo Vegas was an online casino first and foremost.
Let’s talk about the sportsbook first. Leo Vegas’s online sportsbook is a very stripped back affair compared to rivals in terms of how it looks: Only the centre of the screen contains any information/markets/sports etc, with the left and right columns basically dead space set against a background consisting of a football match.
This is largely because Leo Vegas is a mobile-first sportsbook, which as such looks a lot better on mobile devices than it does on desktop.
However, despite Leo Vegas condensing everything – sports, bet slips, odds etc – into a very small space on the screen, the website is surprisingly usable. For example, at the top of the screen are four separate menus for “live,” “upcoming,” “specials,” and my favorites.”
When you click on any of these menus, you can then scroll left or right through all the available sports.
Speaking of sports variety, Leo Vegas’s coverage is comprehensive. Naturally, all the major sports are covered, as well as a few minor sports, including the likes of snooker, surfing, table tennis, and handball.
Betting markets, meanwhile, aren’t quite as varied as they are at some rivals, but there are still plenty of options here. For instance, in a football match you can bet on things like correct score, total goals, both teams to score, handicaps, corners, cards and more pre-match. All in all, there should be enough here to satisfy more bettors.
What’s more, Leo Vegas comes with a bet builder to help you put together your bets. This bet builder lets you add 12 different picks to any one bet.
A useful feature of Leo Vegas is the amount of information that accompanies each match. Taking a premier league football match as an example, you can see to the right of the screen the current league table. At the bottom, meanwhile, are player and team “advanced stats” that are designed to aid your betting-making decisions.
All in all, Leo Vegas is most definitely not a flashy or even a slick sportsbook, but it’s functional and deceptively good. Attention to detail is excellent.
The online casino, on the other hand, lets you bet on slot games, play for jackpots, bingo, and classic table games such as roulette, baccarat and blackjack. You can also play live dealer games.
If you’re into American sports betting, Bodog might be worth checking out. It’s a US-based sports betting site that’s available to Canadian players that covers the likes of the NFL football betting, NBA basketball betting, MLB and the NHL very well.
But let’s start at the beginning. Bodog is one of the most established online sportsbooks, having been launched way back in 1994. Over the years, it’s developed a reputation for offering players exciting and frequent bonuses, competitive odds, and for always being at the forefront of new advancements in online sports betting and adopting state-of-the-art software.
As mentioned, coverage of American sports is vast. There are huge amounts of markets and betting options available, but where we truly think the site outdoes its rivals is why its sports betting guides.
For instance, there are NBA Betting Insights, NHL Betting Insights, NFL Betting Insights and MLB Betting Insights. These detailed guides are there to help you as a bettor make more insightful choices, giving you access to form and tips.
Prop bets in particular are varied for American sports, while the overall betting menu is one of the deepest we’ve seen: Whether you want to bet on soccer, golf, tennis and so on, multiple leagues and tournaments around the world are covered.
You can also bet on virtual sports like greyhounds and horse racing, as well as popular eSports such as Dota.
A generous welcome bonus is a good way to get things started for new players, while existing players can become a Bodog Rewards member. This is a lifetime membership that allows you to a) keep your status and b) move up the tiers if you continue making deposits and placing bets.
Deposit and withdrawal methods include cards, bank transfer and BTC, and you can also withdraw via cheque should you wish. It might irk some players that crypto withdrawals are limited to just one every three days, but the withdrawal process itself is at least instant.
On that note, it’s worth mentioning that Bodog doesn’t offer reduced juice, while lines aren’t often posted as early as their rivals. We wouldn’t say they were slow at getting their lines out, but they’re later than some other sports betting sites.
Bodog also has an online casino which you can easily access from the sportsbook, and here you will find close to 200 casino games produced by world-class gaming providers, such as RealTime Gaming and Rival.
There’s also a poker room and a racebook, the site is mobile friendly, and live betting is available 24/7 across all available sports.
Sports betting is legal in Canada. That said, there are laws and regulations in place that mean there are still some restrictions on what you can and can’t do in the Canadian sports betting market. For example, placing any type of bets other than parlays was illegal for Canadians until recently.
Moreover, single game wagering was only legalised in June 2021.
Due to this, it’s really important that you understand exactly what you can and can’t do. It’s also a smart idea to stay up-to-date with all the latest developments.
As time passes, we expect more restrictions to be lifted.
Not just that, but it’s up to each province to determine their own sports betting laws.
For instance, while Quebec has been quick to fully legalize sports betting now that the passing of the C-218 bill means that single-game wagering is permitted, not all provinces have been as quick to follow suit. We expect the likes of Montreal to permit it soon, but this hasn’t been confirmed just yet.
Again, for you as a Canadian sports bettor, it’s a case of staying up-to-date so that you know exactly what the legal situation is.
Yes and No.
Fully licensed online Canadian sportsbooks (which have a Canadian gambling license) are safe to use, and it’s very likely that they use SSL-encryption to safeguard your details.
If an online sportsbook doesn’t have a license, it might still be safe to use, but we’d advise that you approach it with a degree of caution.
Because Canadian sports bettors have been able to place legal bets for a number of years without being able to indulge in single event sports betting, there’s always been a bit of a cloud over the issue of what you can and can’t bet on.
The easiest way to answer this question is to say that you can bet on all the sports that are available at a Canadian sports betting site. The best Canadian online sportsbooks offer all the popular sports, such as the NFL, NBA, NHL, soccer, tennis and so on, as well as a clutch of minor sports. You can bet on all of these.
Canadian sports fans are also free to bet on college football and local teams at a Canadian sportsbook.
A sportsbook is a place online where you can bet on sporting events.
An online casino is a place online where you can bet on casino games, including slots, poker, baccarat, blackjack and more.
Sometimes a site – such as Leo Vegas – will have a sportsbook and an online casino, and usually if you sign up to either one your accounts will be linked.
Creating a new account at a Canadian sportsbook is super easy. Generally, you just need to hand over some basic info about yourself, such as your name and date of birth, before creating a username and adding a payment method.
And while some of the top Canadian sportsbooks will want to verify your identity via a driving license or passport, most just require email verification.
You can. As long as the betting site in question is mobile-friendly (and all the online gambling sites in our list are), you can place bets on your mobile device. All the same sports betting markets that are available on desktop are also available on mobile, as are the bonuses, the live streams – and so on.
Nope! Canadian players can bet on sports without having to worry that their winnings will be taxed. It’s the same with an online casino – you can gamble on casino games, and your winnings won’t be taxed.
You can deposit and withdraw via the same method at some online gambling sites. However, this isn’t the case at all online casinos.
If you want to deposit and withdraw via the same method, then, it’s important that you take the time to find out whether this is permissible at any online sportsbook you’re thinking of joining.
Online sports betting is booming in Canada now that more legal restrictions have been lifted. The sites we’ve listed here are the best Canadian sports betting sites that are fully-licensed and 100% legal in Canada. Now you have everything you need to know to decide which one(s) is the right one for you.
Make sure to choose a site that has what you want in terms of its look and feel, sports variety, betting options, and live play, and whatever you decide – always gamble responsibly.
