Last month, the rapidly growing gambling industry in the province of Ontario saw another exciting step when Greentube announced a partnership with the Entain Gaming Group.
Per the announcement from Greentube, this partnership “strengthens an already existing partnership with Entain by taking a series of top-performing games live with operator brands BetMGM, PartyCasino, and Bwin in the Canadian province.”
BetMGM was the first licensed sportsbook to launch in Canada’s most populated province. Part of the Greentube-Entain agreement will see BetMGM Ontario and Greentube partner up to release a whole new group of games.
The list of games, per Greentube’s announcement, will include casino games in Mighty Elephant, Might Sevens, Mighty Emperor and the beloved Diamond Link series — with more on the horizon this year. Greentube also has business in the American states of Michigan and New Jersey.
It’s an exciting piece of news for sportsbooks, bettors and casino lovers in the province of Ontario, and it’s a promising sign that the industry’s popularity is only going to increase over time.
What To Know About Sports Betting In Ontario
Through BetMGM Ontario and other sportsbooks, there’s a long list of different sports and teams that fans can bet on. This includes top sports leagues like the NHL, NBA, MLB, football (CFL, NFL and NCAA), soccer, NASCAR, combat sports like boxing and much more.
You can place a variety of different wagers through these sportsbooks, including futures (league champions, division and award winners, etc.), props, parlays, money lines, over/under totals and more.
These sportsbooks also allow customers to play their favorite casino games through the convenience of their mobile devices. You can play all sorts of different slot games and popular in-person casino games such as poker, roulette and blackjack.
PokerStars, Royal Panda, Lucky Days and LeoVegas are among the sportsbooks in Ontario which offer more than 1,000 different slots. Furthermore, sportsbooks have more than a dozen blackjack game options.
The sports betting industry began to take off in May 2018 after the Supreme Court of the United States determined that the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992 (PASPA) was a violation of the country’s Tenth Amendment. The PASPA, which went into effect in 1992, banned sports gambling from taking place in most parts of the country prior to the Supreme Court’s ruling.
To date, more than 30 U.S. states have since legalized a form of sports betting (in-person and/or mobile/online). Ontario became the first province in Canada to launch sports betting in April of last year.
The MLB’s Toronto Blue Jays reached a long-term 10-year deal with theScore Bet sportsbook last April, soon after sports betting officially went live in the province.
Sports Teams To Bet On In Ontario
No Canadian province has more professional sports franchises than Ontario. The Raptors and Blue Jays are the only Canadian teams in the NBA and Major League Baseball, respectively. As such, there is a gigantic following for both the Raptors and Jays across Canada.
Toronto is also home to the NHL’s Maple Leafs, the CFL’s Argonauts and Toronto FC of Major League Soccer.
Ottawa, Canada’s capital city, has the NHL’s Senators and the CFL’s Redblacks. The city of Hamilton has a CFL team in the Tiger-Cats, who have played in two of the last three Grey Cup games.
This is a long list of Ontario teams you can place wagers on through the province’s many available sportsbooks. The Maple Leafs are among the top clubs in the NHL here in 2022-23, so they own some of the highest Stanley Cup odds across various sportsbooks.
At DraftKings, only four teams have higher Stanley Cup odds than the Maple Leafs (+1000): The Boston Bruins (+500), defending champion Colorado Avalanche (+600), Carolina Hurricanes (+800) and Vegas Golden Knights (+900).
Those are also the only four teams with greater Stanley Cup odds than Toronto (+1000) over at the FanDuel sportsbook. The Leafs own the longest active Stanley Cup drought (56 years and counting), but we’ll see if Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner and company can get this team over the bump once and for all in the coming months.
The Blue Jays are coming off their second postseason appearance in three years. Led by stars Vladimir Guerrero Jr. Bo Bichette, George Springer, Kevin Gausman and Alek Manoah, the Blue Jays are once again among the main favorites to win the World Series.
So residents of Toronto could bet on their favorite team to win the AL East division, the AL pennant and/or the World Series. There are also options to bet on individual players winning awards like the AL MVP or AL Cy Young, too.
