Find the best odds online in Canada

One of the things any punter wants to avoid, whether you are betting for fun or a professional punter, is to waste money on low odds online. When looking around for a new bookmaker, it’s easy to get wowed by an extensive market offering or a juicy welcome bonus. These are undoubtedly essential aspects, but the most crucial thing is the bookmakers’ odds. What vig the bookmaker apply to their odds is what you should look out for. You can learn more about odds online on this page and find a list of bookmakers with good odds.

Bookmakers with the highest odds online in Canada

Researching the quality of odds in different bookmakers is time-consuming. That’s why it’s so easy to fall for the bookmaker with the juiciest welcome offer. The list below contains the bookmakers with the best betting odds in Canada. We hope it saves you some time!

Bookmaker vig explained

The sportsbook vig goes by many names; juice, take, cut, margin, commission and gagnotte. In Canada, we commonly refer to it as vig or juice. Regardless of what you call it, vig means one thing: the amount (%) a bookmaker charges on every placed bet.

Many punters aren’t aware of how the vig works. Bookmakers use it to secure a profit over the long run regardless of the outcome of an event. Take a game between the Toronto Raptors and Los Angeles Lakers in the NBA; you will never see both teams to win at 2.0 and 2.0 at the same bookie. More commonly, you would see something like 1.89 and 1.89 if the teams are 50/50 to win. If you see 1.89 on both sides, that means the bookmaker has a 5.82% vig, which means that the bookmaker payout for this match is 94.18%. These are two values punters and reviews usually refer to, bookmaker %vig or %payout. You can find all types of bookmaker vigs out there.

In the past, provincial bookmakers in Canada could use a 10-15% vig and get away with it because it was the only legal betting options available. Today, the vig is much lower on odds online due to the high competition between bookies. In modern bookmakers, you most commonly find that the vig is between 4-8%. As a rule, the higher the vig is, the lesser your profit will be since the bookmaker charges more for the bet you placed. If you’re serious about betting, you should consider the vig.

It’s important to note that the vig is rarely the same across all sports or between leagues within the same sport. Even markets in the same game will have different vig. This is why we refer to the vig as an average value where we look at the most popular sports and leagues. A general rule of thumb is that the more popular the event, such as an NHL game, the lower the vig. If you dig up the third division Peruvian soccer match, the vig will be much higher. The difference in vig, in this case, is that the third division Peru match is a higher risk for the bookmaker, so they add some padding to the regular margin to increase their chances of a profit regardless of the game’s outcome.

The most popular betting markets in Canada

You commonly find the following three markets across all sports: Match Winner, Over/Under and Handicap. These are the most popular markets to bet. Often the odds online for these markets have a low wig compared to other markets.

Match Winner market

Match Winner is the most standard market in Betting. You bet who will win the match. There are two types of Match Winner markets: 1X2 and 12. 1X2 includes the draw and is commonly seen in soccer. 12 does not have the draw and is widely the default Match Winner market in Basketball and sports that goes to overtime until there is a winner. Often you will find both these versions for the same sports; for example, for NHL betting, both the 1X2 and the 12 markets are popular.

Over/Under market

Over/Under market is another popular option. Here you bet on how many goals, points, corners, cards, sets and so on. You can find Over/Under options for many things depending on the sport. Most common is Over/Under Goals and Over/Under Points, depending on what sports we are referring to. In an Over/Under market, you will find different line values representing the overall score. For example, in an NBA game, the Over/Under market may have the following line values: O/U 205.5, O/U 206.5, O/U 207.5, O/U 208.5 and O/U 209.5. These values represent the overall number of points in the match. If you bet Over 207.5, for example, your bet will win if 208 or more points are scored. Anything below that and your bet will lose.

Handicap market

The handicap market is the third most popular type of betting option. A handicap value is assigned to each side, where one team is given a virtual advantage, and the other team is given a virtual disadvantage. Handicaps are used for two things, to provide even “winner” odds in a very uneven game and eliminate the possibility of a draw outcome. Handicap markets can be found for various things, similar to Over/Unders; goals, points, cards, corners, maps, sets and so on. Most common is goal and point handicaps. For example, in an NHL game, the Goals Handicap market may have the following line values: +0.5/-0.5, +1.5/-1.5, +2.5/-2.5. The plus indicates that we should add 2.5 goals to the team in the final result. The minus indicates that we should deduct 2.5 goals from the team in the final result. Let’s say that a match between Montreal Canadiens and Ottawa Senators ended 4-2. You bet Montreal Canadiens -2.5, and your bet would lose as the final result with your handicap would be 1.5-2. If you had a bet on the other side, Ottawa Senators +2.5, then your bet would win as the final result with your bet would be 4-4.5.

Most popular sports and betting options in Canada

Ice hockey odds online

You can’t say Canada and sports in the same sentence without mentioning ice hockey. Fortunately, all Canadian bookmakers offer odds online for ice hockey, including the NHL and the CHL. For these leagues, along with other top leagues like the KHL and SHL, you will find plenty of betting options, including Match Winner, Over/Under and Handicap. A fun betting market that is commonly available for NHL matches is Player Props. With player props, you bet on how many points an individual player will make, how many goals, how many assists, how many penalty minutes and so on.

Soccer odds online

With three Canadian teams competing in the MLS, soccer has seen a surge in popularity in recent years. Luckily for us, soccer is the main focus of bookmakers. Globally it’s the most popular sport, and because of these odds, online are available for soccer betting 24/7—both in pre-match and in-play. High-profile soccer matches have hundreds of markets, including the most popular three markets we highlighted earlier. Also, you will often find player props and minute-to-minute markets. These markets are full of actions, where you bet whether there will be a throw-in or a corner kick in the next minute. Perfect for live betting, and winning bets are paid out instantly.

Lacrosse odds online

Lacrosse is familiar to all Canadians. Outside our country’s borders Lacrosse is relatively unknown. Most bookmakers have a global focus, serving many markets, including Canada. This means that they need to have a broad offering that caters to many markets. Because of this, Lacrosse odds online are not too common. No one is focusing on putting odds on these matches. However, you can expect to find Lacrosse odds online on major tournaments.

Basketball odds online

Basketball betting is prevalent in Canada. Particularly betting on the NBA got a massive upswing during the 2018/19 season when the Toronto Raptors won the NBA Championship. NBA betting hasn’t cooled off since. Outside the NBA, there’s the very popular NCAA that culminates with March Madness each year. You can find odds online for overseas leagues like EuroLeague and other top European leagues in all Canadian bookies. Basketball in-play betting is entertaining as points are scored non-stop on both ends. As such, Over/Under and Handicap betting is a lot of fun with line values being continuously moved.

Tennis odds online

Tennis is available almost 24/7 through the ATP, WTA, ITF and Challenger tournaments. The most popular betting option for tennis is Handicap. Handicap lines can be found on different things. You can bet on overall point lines, set lines or individual points lines in sets. All professional tennis matches offered in the sportsbook will, at a minimum, have odds online for the three main markets for every match.

Summary

Understanding how odds online work is critical to the success of betting. Finding the bookies with the lowest vig is difficult. In an ideal world, all bookmakers would have a low standard vig but as things stand, each bookmaker is unique. A good starting point is the information on this page, and hopefully, you have lots of luck betting with the top bookmakers we recommended based on who has the best odds online.