Canadian regulators have banned event contracts on sports and entertainment across prediction markets. A joint statement from the Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA) and the Canadian Investment Regulatory Organization (CIRO) issued Thursday confirmed that such instruments will remain outside securities and derivatives regulation.
CSA acknowledged that event contracts fall within the broad definition of securities or derivatives under Canadian law but classified them as instruments that should not be regulated within that framework. CIRO stated it will not approve member applications to trade contracts on sports or entertainment. Only contracts tied to economic, environmental and financial indicators remain permitted.
Regulators also reinforced the ban on short-dated binary options with maturities under 30 days for retail investors, a rule in place since 2017. That cuts off most sports contracts popular in the U.S. Two platforms currently operate legally in Canada: IBKR Forecast Trader from Interactive Brokers and Predict from Wealthsimple. Questrade intends to enter but has not received approval.
In August, Wealthsimple published a white paper urging regulators to allow short-dated binary options, including contracts on elections, sports and entertainment. The company noted that combined monthly volume at Polymarket and Kalshi grew from $5 billion in September last year to $24 billion in April. Wealthsimple did not respond to Gambling Insider's request for comment.
Canadian Gaming Association president Paul Burns backed the decision, saying sports betting in any form should go through provincial gaming regulators and that the line between a 'sports contract' and a 'sports bet' should not come down to semantics.
