How to choose a sportsbook

Most bettors pick a sportsbook because of an ad or a welcome bonus. Both are poor guides. The book you use decides what you pay on every bet for as long as you bet there, how quickly you get paid, and what tools you have when you want to slow down. This guide gives seven checks, in order of how much they matter, with the numbers to back each one. It covers the options for players outside Ontario and Alberta: provincial sites and offshore books licensed abroad.

Check 1: licence and operator

Start with who runs the book and who supervises it.

• Provincial operators such as BCLC's PlayNow, Loto-Quebec's Mise-o-jeu, PlayNow in Saskatchewan and Manitoba, and Atlantic Lottery are run by or for the province. B.C.'s government describes PlayNow.com as the only legal online gambling site in that province.
• Offshore books hold licences from authorities outside Canada. The common ones for Canadian-facing books are the Kahnawake Gaming Commission (whose public permit-holder list names, among others, the operators of Sports Interaction, BET99 and TonyBet), the Malta Gaming Authority (for example bet365, Betway, Beazt and Wildz) and Curacao (for example Stake, PowerPlay and CasinOK).

Look the licence up on the regulator's own register rather than trusting a footer badge. Our reviews state the licence and register result for each book. The casino licences guide explains what each authority does and does not cover.

Check 2: prices

Margin is charged on every bet. Small differences add up.

How to check: pick five games, open the same markets at two or three books, and add up the implied probabilities as shown in the bookmaker margin guide. The book with the lowest totals is the cheaper one for you. The odds converter handles American-to-decimal conversion.

Check 3: markets for your sports

A book is only as good as its menu for what you bet on. From our records:

"No" means the feature or sport is not listed in the book's published sports menu as captured in our records; menus change, so confirm on the review. If you bet CFL, a book without Canadian football is a non-starter whatever its bonus.

Check 4: deposits and withdrawals

What matters is how you get money out:

• Methods. Interac e-Transfer is the standard Canadian route at most books; e-wallets and crypto vary.
• Withdrawal times and caps. Look for a stated processing time and any per-withdrawal cap. One book in our records caps single withdrawals at C$4,000.
• Verification. Every book verifies identity before paying out; finishing KYC early avoids a delay on your first withdrawal.

Check 5: bonus terms, not bonus size

A welcome bonus is a one-off; prices are every day. When you do compare bonuses, compare their cost: rollover x base x margin. A C$100 bonus at 6x the bonus on singles costs about C$27 to clear on average; at 20x deposit plus bonus it costs about C$182, more than the bonus. The betting bonus terms guide has the full method, and current offers are on sports welcome bonuses.

Check 6: responsible gambling tools

Before depositing, find the limits page in the account settings. A good book offers:

• deposit limits (daily, weekly, monthly), applied at once when lowered;
• loss or wager limits;
• time-outs and session reminders;
• self-exclusion, with a clear process.

Provincial self-exclusion, such as B.C.'s Game Break, covers provincial sites only. At an offshore book, its own tools are what you have. See the responsible gambling tools guide.

Check 7: settlement rules and support

Read the house rules on overtime, postponed games, void legs in parlays and bet builders, and maximum payouts. A book whose rules are hard to find tends to be a book whose disputes are hard to win. Check support hours and channels too: live chat around the clock is common, phone support is not.

A simple scorecard

Our own scores combine similar factors; how we rate explains the weighting, and the betting sites page ranks the books.

Before you sign up

Set a budget first. The Lower-Risk Gambling Guidelines suggest no more than 1% of household income a month, on no more than four days. If you open more than one account to compare prices, the budget covers all of them together. The bankroll management guide has the stake maths, and responsible gambling lists the helpline for your province.