Top Legal ON Betting Sites 
theScore Bet Ontario Review 2024
'theScore Bet' app is live in the legal Ontario iGaming market. It gained its license from the AGCO on February 4, 2022. Once a purely Canadian company, in 2021, theScore was acquired by Penn Entertainment, which has its headquarters in Pennsylvania, so technically, it is now part of an American company.
Who can play using theScore Bet app in Canada?
Know that theScore Bet app is only available to players that are physically located in Ontario. So if you are in BC, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Quebec, the Atlantic provinces or the Territories, theScore Bet is not available to you for actual play. For the best sports betting options for players outside Ontario, read about our top Canadian betting sites. If you are actually interested in casino play, you might wish to read about our thoughts on the best online casinos for Canada. Each of the brands listed on both of these pages are owned by top-tier international gaming companies that have gained their Ontario licenses, but still serve those in Canada outside Ontario from their "offshore" gaming jurisdictions. They also support CAD accounts & banking methods including Interac & Instadebit among others. Don't risk playing at shady Russian, Eastern European & Central American brands that may never payout properly or might require USD accounts.
theScore Bet is on the same sportsbook platform as ESPN BET as found in the USA
In the USA, where online sports betting is legal and where Penn Entertainment has a license to operate, Penn originally operated "Barstool Sportsbook". In November of 2023, after having sold "Barstool Sports" back to its founder, Dave Portnoy for a dollar, they moved to launch "ESPN BET". So for those that ask "is ESPN BET available in Ontario?", know that it is not. However, ESPN BET runs on the sportsbook platform built by the team at theScore Bet. So if you want to try the closest thing to ESPN BET, it's theScore Bet.
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About theScore Bet in Ontario: app only at first, betting site added later
At its outset 'theScore Bet' only operated as an Ontario mobile betting app, not as a betting site as accessed from an Internet browser. This would be seen as disappointing for the cohort of players that normally prefer to do game research, crunch the numbers, compare odds, then place their bets all within their laptop or desktop Internet browser. We can happily report that theScore Bet has added a proper betting website to the mix as accessed from computers. They are not among our recommended legal Ontario betting sites, but it's great that they've made the addition for folks that really enjoy a properly large display.
Why is theScore Bet only available via apps on your mobile?
We understand why they've taken this path. They have a huge Ontario user base for their main sports app, 'theScore', and they want to be able to leverage their users' data to offer each player a bespoke sports betting experience. To do this, the two platforms need to know a lot about each other, and only this kind of data monitoring and sharing would be possible if their betting platform was a mobile app. They just would not get the same level of data through a betting site.
Given this, there will probably be no mobile betting experience in Ontario that will be more personalized to the user than "theScore Bet". For example, based on a user's particular sport and team preferences as found on the main 'theScore' app, we could see the company personalize the betting experience for bettors within 'theScore Bet' app", which could be very compelling for the user.
The possibilities in this regard are seemingly limitless given the data that 'theScore' likely has about each of its users.
From where we sit, this is both good and bad.
The good is the above, a highly customized user experience. However, the reality is that mobile apps have been shown to have data privacy issues. While "theScore Bet" will have a huge amount of user data that it can leverage for a personalized experience on its app, there is no alternative to play through the more private solution of a betting site as accessed via an Internet browser, from any mobile device. Beyond this, all app publishers may have access to other user data that has little to do with the enhancing the player's experience on the betting app itself. User data is valuable, and app terms often give the publishers free rein to monetize this data.
theScore Bet odds margins: average for the "big 4", less so beyond
When it comes to the leagues and betting markets that Ontarians wager on the most, theScore Bet uses what are typical odds values and associated "sportsbook hold", or margin when compared to other top brands. The most important leagues by betting volume in Ontario are of course the NFL, NBA, NHL and MLB. Within these, there are three key markets: the spread, the moneyline (game winner) and the total (or over/under). The "sportsbook hold" in use by theScore Bet on these markets is a little over 5%. When the odds are equal on both sides, they look like -110/-110 or 1.90/1.90. This essentially a standard or average level of odds value as found at any reasonably competitive sportsbook. Odds of course can fluctuate, but the margin on these markets generally stays in this region, not bad value, not great value - totally acceptable. Their UFC odds also appear to use margins near 5%, or sometimes better, which again is certainly welcome and acceptable
Odds margins appear to go higher on other sports however at theScore Bet, meaning lower overall odds across a given sporting event. When we look at the main 1X2 match result betting market on top soccer leagues, their Premier League odds indicate margins from 6.5% to over 7.5%. Especially for matches that tend toward the latter, theScore Bet is offering value that is far less competitive than many other legal Ontario sportsbook operators, that often use margins below 5% on such popular soccer leagues. When we look at theScore Bet's cricket odds, they also tend to be in this 7% range in terms of margin.
So perhaps unsurprisingly, theScore Bet provides decent odds value for the most popular leagues and markets in Ontario, but for more international events, expect margins to be a little richer. By all means, explore their odds, but expect better odds value and more market coverage on these more internationally popular sports and leagues at our recommended Ontario operators.
Does theScore Bet offer esports betting?
At the time of our review, yes, theScore Bet offered esports event coverage, but it was limited to LoL events. So if League of Legends is your preferred esport, theScore Bet will have you covered pretty well. We did not see any coverage of other popular esports. So if you like CS:GO, SCII, Dota 2 or any other esport, you might be out of luck with theScore Bet. See our Ontario esports betting write-up for the top legal options in this growing market segment.
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theScore Bet Ontario bottom line
We at SNBET do not tend to recommend operators that only offer betting apps for mobile play, so we won't be able to recommend 'theScore Bet', unless they make the addition of a mobile betting site, which is something that we do not anticipate. 'theScore Bet' is not alone in only offering an app for their mobile sportsbook, as DraftKings Ontario, FanDuel Ontario and PointsBet Canada all do the same for their mobile players. Given this, we won't be able to recommend these Ontario sportsbook operators either. We want users that have data privacy concerns to be able to choose to play more securely, via an Internet browser if they wish.
Options. We like operators that provide options.
However, we understand that our desire to see consumer options in this regard is not a desire that is shared by all. We know that many potential players in Ontario simply don't think that they need to be concerned about their mobile data being harvested and/or sold, especially if it might lead to a heavily personalized or convenient experience. If this is not a concern for you, and your sports betting preferences could be categorized as fairly typical of your average Ontarian, we would not dissuade you from trying theScore Bet. With that said, there are aspects of their offering that have been bested by several of our recommended Ontario operators, in terms of available features, the international sports coverage & odds value, as well as esports betting availability.
