Online sports betting in Canada offers punters the ideal opportunity to wager and win big at home, or on the go. While Internet-based sports betting has been around for some time, many Canadians are only now realising the benefits of wagering this way.
If you are keen get in on the action, we’ve compiled a handy online betting guide to get you going.
Online bookmakers work in much the same way their traditional land-based counterparts. The only difference is that you can bet on a much wider range of events, and you can bet anytime, anywhere.
With any kind of online sports betting, the aim is to accurately predict the outcome of an event. For example, if there is a popular NBA game coming up, you can predict which team will win the match. Other examples include predicting which horse will win a race, which driver will win a F1 Grand Prix, who will be crowned Wimbledon Champion or who will win the Super Bowl or Stanley Cup.
The most important part of the online sports betting process is choosing which bookmaker to sign up with. While there plenty of top brands to choose from, you should be looking for a site that suits you needs. We suggest finding a bookmaker that features a wide range of sports, offers plenty of markets, competitive odds, secure banking facilities and decent bonuses for signing up and on going loyalty.
Once you have found the right site, you can sign up for free and make your first deposit. You can top up your account by credit card, local bank transfer, debit card or by using a web-wallet facility. Once you have funds in your account, you are all set to place your first bet.
The key to online sports betting is to only bet on what you know the most about. If you are passionate about Tennis, then you will know the status of the best players in the world, which tournaments they have won, where they are on World Ranking and how they perform on Clay or Grass. It would make sense then to bet on Tennis, as you can use your knowledge to predict what will happen in an upcoming game or tournament.
Sports betting Canada sites offer plenty of different sports to choose from, including local and overseas options. You can find everything from Golf to Tennis, Horse Racing to Formula One, Ice Hockey to Badminton, Football to Basketball and just about everything in between. In some cases, there are over 40 different sports to choose from. You are not just limited to traditional options either. You can also bet on eSports, entertainment, elections and world events.
With each event, race, game or tournament you can choose from a selection of markets that you can think of as different types of bets. The most popular markets are match and outright markets. These simply require you to predict the winner of a match, or the outright winner of a tournament. For more experienced punters, the available online betting markets include prop wagers on individual statistics in a game. For example, in Basketball, they can include the team to score the first three pointer, team to lead in the third quarter, best defensive and best offensive team.
Understanding odds is key if you want to make a profit on a wager. With each event, odds will be posted reflecting the team’s theoretical chances of winning, and the total amount of profit you can make on the wager. In Canada, odds are mainly expressed in decimal format, such as 5.00 or 3.50. The higher the odds, the more you get paid out for a successful result. Odds can also be expressed in fractional format, such as 5/1 (five to one).
Favourites tend to have much lower odds and subsequently lower payouts since there is a greater chance of them winning. Underdogs and outsiders have much higher odds, which pay out handsomely, but have a much smaller chance of winning. The idea is to find higher odds on events where you are confident on the result.
Before you enjoy any sports betting in Canada, it is important to do as much research as possible. Find out everything you can about the teams, the players and the coaches. Read about or watch their past matches/races to get an idea of what might happen next. There are many factors that can influence the outcome of a game or match. These include where the match is being played, if there is a home ground advantage, if the team has any injuries, if there are any changes to the coaching staff, when last the team played, if the team has to travel extensively and what happened the last time these two teams met.
If you are just starting out with online sports betting, stick to basic bets like the moneyline or handicaps. While they may not be as lucrative, they will be more likely to win. It is important to remember that even the pros have a 55% success rate, so that means out of every 50 bets placed, they lose money on 23 of them. The key is to find the right risk to reward ratio.
All top-rated sports betting Canada sites will offer dozens of sports and hundreds of markets. If you are just starting out though, you may want to kick off with the most popular options in the country. These include:
If you want to get the most out of your online betting experience, it is worth looking for a bookmaker that has everything you need. Remember that bonuses and free bets are only one part of the package. You should also be looking for great odds, secure banking and a good list of markets. With that in mind, we’ve drawn up a short list of the top online sportsbooks for Canadians.
Any one of these recommended sites is top class, safe, secure, offers a great range of wagering opportunities and highly competitive odds.
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