No, BetOnline.ag is not licensed within the legal Ontario sports betting marketplace, nor will they be. They are not regulated in any local jurisdiction, as they are one of the biggest "black market" betting brands in the world. This means that they will serve players in a way that is seen as illegal by the player's home jurisdiction and gambling regulators. BetOnline.ag will serve essentially anyone, anywhere.
If you watch European or South American soccer in Canada, you may see BetOnline's pitch-side ads. These are added electronically by the broadcaster. They are not on the actual side boards. They also sponsor combat sports. With this brand visibility, plus their placement on many sportsbook review sites, many Canadians will have questions about BetOnline.ag. While they have been around for a long time, and they have many loyal customers, mainly in markets where online betting has been made fully illegal, it is not a brand that we would recommend to Canadians for many reasons.
BetOnline.ag Grade |
• No Canadian Dollar accounts. • No Canada-friendly payment methods. • Odds or "sportsbook hold" is often just on par with regulated & taxed brands. • No RG tools like deposit or spend limits. • No Bet Builder or cashout features. • No license in Ontario. |
This is a huge deal for all players in the "rest of Canada". If you are in Canada but outside Ontario, you may participate with any "grey market" or "offshore" betting provider that has decided to serve your market, since your local provincial jurisdiction has not made their use illegal. Since provinces outside Ontario have not moved to create a legal framework in this regard, BetOnline.ag is a "grey market" option for your purposes like any other international "offshore" betting site. However, there are so many reputable sportsbook brands that have chosen to offer Canadian Dollar accounts and payment methods so that you can avoid costly currency exchange fees that eat away at your deposited or withdrawn amounts.
If you play at BetOnline-dot-ag, you'll have to play in US Dollars, so your CAD base amount will need to be converted as you buy-in, then your USD betting balance will need to be converted back when it lands back home. These fees can vary from 3% to 5% of the value you are transacting, and is simply not a cost that is involved when you play at our recommended sportsbooks which all offer Canadian Dollar accounts.
As BetOnline-dot-ag is an online bookmaker that wants to facilitate payments in jurisdictions where its players are not supposed to be allowed to play. As such, one of their main methods of payment is the "money order" at services like MoneyGram. This is not a super convenient way to make payments for most people. Credit card payments are available, but these payments are very expensive given they are treated as "cash advances" by your local card company. This means very high interest begins to accrue from the moment of the deposit, and this a reason we always advise against credit card sportsbook deposits in Canada. BetOnline does not offer popular Canadian "grey market" betting site payment methods like iDebit, Instadebit or Interac e-transfers.
Oftentimes, you will hear betting commentators talk about how great the odds can be at "black market" or "illegal sportsbooks" within the American context, as if the "illegal" bookies offer better odds value than the regulated ones. The good news is, there's a test for that. The best place you can always look for a quick value check is the point spread or totals (over/under) market on NFL or NBA games. When we look at NBA playoff game markets at the moment of writing, we find odds of 1.90/1.90 or -110/-110 for both of these betting markets.
This is a "sportsbook hold" that is completely on par with most of the operators in the legal Ontario market or legal US state markets, around 5%. In other words, despite no taxation and less investment in technology, the odds value is the same at this "leading" black market bookie. For soccer, their 1X2 match result market has competitive value, with a "hold" around 3.5%, which is good. However, the reality is that there are options that serve the "rest of Canada" market with better value, better betting tools, and overall better platforms.
What about the "Futures" odds at BetOnline? At the moment of writing, the NHL playoffs were just staring for 2023. The BetOnline odds for Toronto to win the Stanley Cup outright were 11.00 or +1,000. For Edmonton, their outright winner odds were 8.50 or +750. When we scanned the odds market for this popular Stanley Cup winner market, we found odds on Toronto at several regulated brands, legal in Ontario & elswhere at 12.00 or +1100 (888sport & Unibet). Many of the others matched the BetOnline odds value. On Edmonton to win outright, we found odds of 13.00 or +1,200 from Unibet Canada & 888sport. We found odds of 12.00 or +1,100 from ComeOn! and 11.00 or +1,000 from Betsafe Canada. In other words, these regulated and taxed sportsbook brands had Stanley Cup odds on the two biggest Canadian teams in the playoffs that were between 10% and 60% higher than BetOnline.ag. So no, BetOnline.ag cannot be counted on to have far better odds value than regulated bookmakers. That's a fallacy.
Yes and no. Some brands call this feature a "Bet Builder". BetOnline definitely does not offer a "Bet Builder" as you cannot build your own SGP based on a large list of betting market options. What they do offer is a list of pre-built combination bets. You simply click or tap the "Same Game Parlays" link to open the list of already-built combination bets. So in the way you might want them, BetOnline does not offer them. For the "rest of Canada" market, brands like Betsafe Canada and bet365 Canada have the most robust sorts of this custom SGP feature.
If they do, we can't find them. If you want to build Same Game Parlays (SGPs), or secure partial wins before an event ends, or be able to partially or sometimes fully refund your stake before a game has begun, read our list of the best Canadian betting sites, where we specifically address these key features and discuss which operators have the best versions of them for bettors in Canada.
Yes, they have a default deposit match offer of 50% up to USD1,000. This means you would have to deposit USD2,000 to get the full value of the bonus. The minimum deposit to qualify for the offer is $US55. Given the problems and drawbacks we've highlighted above for Canadian players at BetOnline.ag, if you are looking for a new customer offer to begin your wagering journey, we would respectfully point you toward our top brands and their Canadian betting bonuses. They all support CAD accounts and payment methods for "rest of Canada" players, and are owned by top-tier companies that have moved to serve the regulated Ontario market.
BetOnline does support payments in a number of cryptocurrencies, but these deposits are converted into a USD betting account. In other words, BetOnline makes money from crypto-to-USD conversion. A site like Stake.com however is actually one of many purely crypto sportsbooks, where you may actually deposit, play with, and withdraw a given cryptocurrency, without ever having to exchange to a fiat currency betting account. BetOnline supports payments via Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, Cardano, Dogecoin, Ripple among others toward their USD betting accounts, not CAD.
Yes, but given the fact that they do not offer CAD accounts or convenient & economical payment methods, theirs is not an online casino that makes sense for any player in Canada and outside Ontario. There are so many reputable Interac online casinos for players across Canada, with a wide array of live dealer and slots games that are far superior to BetOnline.
Plenty of "grey market" but reputable online sportsbooks serve people across Canada, outside Ontario, with Canadian Dollar accounts & payment methods. BetOnline doesn't have offer these crucial components of what you should be looking for, but they also do not have superior betting platforms, features, odds values, or Responsibe Gaming tools to control your spending. We're not saying BetOnline is disreputable. We don't have any evidence of them stealing money or cancelling winnings, like we have seen for 1XBET. But that's not the point, they still are not built to provide Canadians with all they could want in an online sportsbook. They don't win out in any category by which you could evaluate them. Not one. So why would you look to play there?