Will Baltics Top Sports Betting Operators Benefit From New Gambling Laws in Canada?

Starting April 4, 2022, the online betting landscape in the Canadian province of Ontario has undergone significant changes  – licensed operators are now allowed to operate in a regulated environment. Thirteen licensed sportsbooks have already started doing their business while a few others are still working on the launch of their betting sites and apps.

Canada’s most populous province was the first to regulate the online gaming market. With a population of nearly 15 million, Ontario is projected to create a gross gaming revenue of $800 million by the end of 2022. A big chunk of that money will pour into the province’s budget through gaming taxes. Depending on the success of Ontario’s gaming industry, many other provinces could follow suit with the legalization and regulation of online gambling.

Canada’s New Laws Make It a Fertile Ground for Gaming Business

Although online gambling has been present in Canada for years, the new regulations are sure to cause a sharp increase in gaming activity in the near future. As a reminder, Canada’s laws allow tribal casinos to issue licenses to betting sites and online casinos. For instance, the Kahnawàke Gaming Commission has already issued a gambling license to a number of platforms. The result is that those platforms have the luxury to accept Canadian players.

However, the Canadian government is planning to expand its gambling laws in order to make the industry legal and regulated at the federal level. In fact, they’ve already started, with several crucial laws already in motion.

The next step is for each individual province to decide for itself which sportsbooks should be given the green light to operate within the provincial borders. Judging by Ontario’s example, sportsbooks need to tick all sorts of boxes to prove they’re worthy of an operating license.

One of the sportsbook brands that’s expected to make a big push into the Canadian betting market is Betsafe. Licensed in Malta, this operator has been accepting Canadians from the areas in which online gambling is in the legal gray area. Betsafe Sports is considered a trustworthy operator for Canadian players, and as such, it should probably have no problem obtaining an operating license.

Betsafe Sportsbook Wins the 2022 BSG Award

Betsafe is an award-winning operator that’s been operating in a number of countries across the globe. Among those are the countries from the Baltic region, where Betsafe is thought of as one of the top online sportsbooks. The proof is that the brand was recently awarded the BSG Award for being the best operator in the region.

The Baltic and Scandinavian Gaming Awards (BSG Awards) are awarded to the best companies in the online gaming industry that have a presence in the countries in the northern part of Europe. The 2022 BSG Awards ceremony was held on May 12, at Radisson Blu Royal Astorija Hotel in the capital of Lithuania, Vilnius.

The awards were given for 28 different categories and the voting was conducted across two separate stages. The first stage was the online voting stage, in which users had to choose the top five companies from each category. In the second stage, a jury made up of industry professionals had the job to decide which remaining companies deserve to be called the best.

Somewhat unsurprisingly, Betsafe won the award for the Best Sports Betting Operator in the Baltics in 2022. It came on top of four local sportsbook operators – Cbet, Totalisator, Coolbet, and Goalbet.

The 2022 BSG Award is just one in a long list of accolades this sportsbook has received over the years. With such an impressive portfolio, the brand has had an easy job expanding its empire. Right now, the sportsbook is operating in dozens of different countries across the globe, with European countries being its #1 focus. Still, industry insiders believe that the time has come for Betsafe to start working harder on taking over the North American market.

Betsafe and Other Baltics Sportsbooks Coming to North America?

Online sports betting is legal and regulated in the Baltics, but only a handful of brands currently operate in this region. The explanation behind this is that getting an operating license in Lithuania or Estonia isn’t easy. The sportsbooks need to prove they fulfill all the criteria set up by the gambling authorities of the aforementioned countries.

Judging by what we saw since Ontario regulated the sports betting industry, we can say that the conditions for getting a license in the Canadian province don’t differ much from those set by the Baltic countries. That said, it’s likely that the sportsbooks licensed in the Baltics have everything needed to get an operating license in Canada. It seems that it’s only a matter of time before they start swarming to the Great White North.