Online gambling has dominated Canadian entertainment news over the last couple of years. For many people, the emergence of legislation allowing sports betting companies to operate in Ontario was long overdue. Ontario and the other Canadian provinces lagged behind several other countries when it came to online gambling (some have legislated and taxed online betting for nearly 20 years!) This has led to a surge in the number of Canadians looking to check out sports betting markets and explore what is causing such hysteria within sporting circles.
If you’ve never ventured onto sports betting sites and are keen to learn more, we’ve compiled a few handy tips as part of our beginner’s guide. Hopefully, this should help you boost your knowledge and give you an idea of what to expect when you fire up a sports betting site for the first time.
Sports betting defined
Although sports betting would traditionally be confined to the big Canadian sports such as ice hockey and lacrosse, the Big Four leagues in the US, and fringe markets like tennis, the emergence of online platforms has meant that this definition has expanded a whole lot.
Many sports betting platforms operating in Ontario have grown their markets in other international areas before being given the green light to launch in Canada, following the C-218 bill in June 2021. Sports betting includes all top professional sports markets, such as ice hockey, soccer, basketball, tennis and boxing, all the way to the fast-growing esports market.
Understanding markets
You could randomly pick one from the list of sports in the last section. There is a wide range of markets to understand. Some of the most common ones include match results and betting on the winner or team in an individual game. Outright markets cover a much longer period – for instance, if you want to bet on Liverpool to win the English Premier League following their incredible start to the season, that would be considered an outright market.
Other markets, such as derivative markets, will focus on micro markets that occur in the middle of the game, known as in-play betting. This includes things like betting on the next point in a game of tennis, or betting on which player will score next in an ice hockey match after the game has begun. But be sure to first explore news about the upcoming game – for example, Connor McDavid’s recent return from injury would’ve boosted the odds for the Oilers in their upcoming fixtures.
Only stick to sports you follow and understand. While the temptation might be there to bet on other sports, given the selection of markets, betting on any sport you do not understand is a slippery slope. Keep it fun and within limits, and get to grips with market terminology before risking any of your own money on a wager.
Decimal, fractional and moneyline – odds formats
It’s rare to come across a sports betting site in Ontario that doesn’t allow you to display odds in the format of your choice. Personally, I don’t use moneyline or decimal odds, but they aren’t challenging to understand. Moneyline is the most common format in US markets and is displayed as a multiple of $100. So, if a team is +300, a $100 bet would return $300.
This same market would be displayed as 4.0 in decimal, as it also includes the stake. So, if you bet $100, you get $400, including the stake, which is a multiple of 4.0. Last but not least, we have fractional odds, and this same market would be displayed as 3/1 – meaning the outlay of the number on the right returns the value of the number on the left.
Depending on the market, these formats can get a little trickier, but once you find your preference out of these three, you will soon understand how these odds operate. Sports betting platforms often have calculators that will calculate odds or the value of an accumulator, which is when you combine multiple selections.
Gambling safely
Due to the risk of monetary loss, it’s vital to understand the tools you have at your disposal to manage your bankroll and the amount of time you spend gambling. Awareness of responsible gambling and its importance as part of your broader strategy is the most integral factor for any beginner jumping into the wide world of sports betting.
We recommend familiarizing yourself with cooling-off periods, implementing timeouts, understanding how problem gambling charities operate, and setting time and deposit limits to ensure that your betting remains within a reasonable framework.
Conclusion
Although understanding responsible gambling and learning about how odds formats and markets work are the three initial steps any beginner should take, it’s also important to get a good grounding in how sports betting websites and apps work.
Sports betting platforms have improved enormously over the last 20 or so years, and the Ontario market is getting its first taste of them in their most chiseled and streamlined form. As captivating as these platforms are, entering them with little or no knowledge is dangerous, and we strongly recommend taking the time to read a beginner’s guide or at least to become familiar with how a sports betting website or mobile app is laid out.
