ONTARIO.GG

Is sports betting legal in Ontario?

Updated By the Ontario.gg Editorial Team

Yes. Sports betting is legal in Ontario, single games included. Canadian law has let a province run betting on a single sport event since August 27, 2021, and Ontario does it two ways: through OLG, and through private operators under contract with iGaming Ontario.

Is sports betting legal in Canada?

Yes, where a province runs or licenses it. Bill C-218, the Safe and Regulated Sports Betting Act, received royal assent on June 29, 2021. It amended the Criminal Code so that a province's government, or a person or entity the province licenses, may conduct and manage betting on a race other than a horse race, on a fight, or on a single sport event or athletic contest. An order in council fixed August 27, 2021 as the day the change took effect. So sports gambling is legal in Canada only through a province, and how each one does it is up to that province. This site covers Ontario.

Who takes bets in Ontario

OLG's PROLINE sells in stores, and PROLINE+, OLG's online sportsbook, takes bets through an OLG.ca account. Private sportsbooks need a contract with iGaming Ontario: 34 sites carry the Sports Betting label in its catalogue, and they accept bets only from players located in Ontario. Our board of licensed betting sites in Ontario shows each one's operator and listed address.

How old must you be to sports bet in Ontario?

19 for any online bet, on a private site or on PROLINE+. In a store, OLG sets 18 for PROLINE and for POOLS. A private site can ask for more: Caesars Sportsbook says 21 in its Ontario terms.

What you can bet on

The Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO) regulates the online operators. Its Standard 4.34 sets the test for every bet a regulated sportsbook offers: all 15 requirements must be met. In plain words:

On the board

What every bet needs

  • A result that can be documented and verified, produced by a reliable and independent process.
  • A result no bet can influence.
  • Mostly adult competitors: over half of everyone taking part in the event or league is 18 or older.
  • For sports, a governing body that sets the final rules and enforces a code of conduct banning insider betting.
  • Safeguards against match-fixing, cheating and anything else that could rig the result.
  • An event held within the law.

Check the event

Where it depends

  • Esports: Standard 4.34 doesn’t single them out, so all 15 requirements apply, from the 18+ majority to match-fixing safeguards.
  • Novelty bets: exempt from the governing-body condition and nothing else.
  • Young competitors: the 18+ majority is counted across the whole event or league, not one heat, game or match.

Off the board

Never allowed

  • Minor-league sports in Canada, the CHL’s three leagues included: OHL, WHL and QMJHL.
  • Events whose result is already public.
  • Objectionable bets: unethical events, entertainment drawn from human suffering or death, non-consensual violence or injury.
  • Animal fighting or cruelty.
  • Stocks, bonds, currencies, real estate and other financial markets.
  • Any bet that can cost more than the stake.
  • Bets built like financial products, contracts for difference among them.
  • Lottery results and synthetic lottery products.

The CHL ban is enforced. On June 20, 2023 the AGCO issued monetary penalties to BV Gaming and Fitzdares Canada, alleging they had offered bets on Ontario Hockey League, Western Hockey League and Quebec Major Junior Hockey League games in the 2022–23 season.

Esports events face the same requirements; esports betting in Ontario covers what that means for tournaments and for advertising.

Sports betting ads: what the rules allow

Advertising by regulated online operators falls under the AGCO's Standards 2.03 to 2.07. In short:

  • Offers stay out of public ads. Inducements and bonuses may reach you only on the operator's gaming site, or in direct messages you opted in to, and never on TV, billboards or targeted online ads.
  • No athletes under contract. An operator can't use a current or retired athlete it has a deal with, unless the ad is purely about responsible gambling. Guidance from the AGCO counts esports players as athletes.
  • Nothing aimed at minors. Cartoons, celebrities and influencers likely to appeal to people under 19 are out, and so is advertising in media whose audience is mostly minors.
  • No false promises. An ad can't present winning as the likely result, or betting as a way to make a living or recover losses.

These rules get enforced as well: DraftKings Sportsbook drew a $100,000 penalty in 2022 over alleged public advertising of inducements. Nationally, Bill S-211 would set a framework for sports betting advertising, but on November 3, 2026 it was still at committee in the House of Commons, so it isn't law.

Legal doesn't mean harmless

A licence tells you who answers to the regulator. It doesn't change the odds of losing. If betting is costing more than you planned, our page on help with gambling lists who to call and how to block yourself from regulated sites.