British Columbia Sports Betting 2023 - Best Sports Books

British Columbia was one of the few providences to fall under the amendment that would allow for single sports betting to be legal in their area. So we’re going to take a dive into what books are available to them and which ones are the best to use as the market becomes flooded with options. 

British Columbia Sports Betting 2023

For years Canadians operated in a sort of grey area when it came to sports betting. Legally they were only allowed to bet on parlays (I know how frustrating) and while it wasn’t legal to make single bet wagers, there were technically no laws in place to punish any users who decided to do this.

The problem with this, is Canadians were left with few solid options for single game sports betting, and often fell victim to scams from shady offshore establishments. Thankfully though all of that changed in August of 2021.

Legal Framework for Sports Betting in British Columbia

Single sport gambling was a strange thing in Canada for many years. It was something people did but no one really talked about in the open. It wasn’t legal, but there was no laws to push anyone who was doing this. Canada made a number of amendments over the years. Starting all the way back in 1892 gambling as a whole was entirely outlawed. No bets could be made on anything at all, not casino games, not sports betting, nothing. Through the years many amendments happened slowly loosening up the rules over time. In 1985 sports betting would be legal, but with a twist, only parlay cards would be allowed. Finally in the 1990’s the Canadian government made the decision on the legality of gambling to be decided on a province by province basis.

Fast forward to August of 2021, single sports betting would become legal officially in Canada, and it would be left to each providence to decide if they would allow it within their boarders. 

Best SportsBook in British Columbia

Now lets dive into some of the best books available to the great providence of British Columbia. They have plenty of options so hopefully we can steer you in the right direction of the ones to use. Every book has their pros and cons so its best to do a lot of research and see which one is right for you. 

Bet365

Unlike America where a sports book must have a brick and mortar casino attached to it to operate within the state, Canada does not have this same rule, they just need to pay a regulator fee and their taxes. Because of that Bet365 had an automatic head start on cornering the Canadian betting market as it already existed there. Bet365 has always been one of the most popular betting choices around and even with the wave of “legal” book it still remains one of the best and most popular 

1. Betting Experience: Bet365 covers just about every sport you could want to bet on. They also have a good number of betting markets, so they have you covered on just about any bet you would want to make. Bet365 also has fairly sharp lines
2. Deposits & Payouts: Making a deposit is easy, they cover every major debit and credit card. Payouts are fairly quick as well, typically done between 1-3 days. They also have a PayPal as a back end option for depositing
3. Customer Service: You can’t ask more from them when it comes to customer service. They don’t have a phone number but e-mail and live support work very well. You can also contact them on twitter. 

PointsBet

PointsBetting is a unique way of betting which is newly available to British Columbia, Canada. It is a high-risk, high-reward option where bettors can win or lose more based on the outcome of their wager(s). For example, if you take the over on the Knicks scoring 110 and they score 120, you win ten times your stake (120-110). But, if they only score 105, you would lose five times your stake (110-105).

1. Betting Experience: When using PointsBet the different betting style typically has to be something you want to use to get the most out of them. They do offer regular betting however the focus is on the “PointsBet” option.
2. Deposits & Payout: All major debit and credit cards are supported, as well as PayPal. These options are not available for withdrawal though. PayPal is your quickest method at 1-2 days E-Check and Bank Deposit are available in 1-5 days. 
3. Customer Service: PointsBet offers top tier customer service. They really work to help the customer in a timely fashion and they do what they can to make sure you get a favorable answer to you problem. Phone is not available but live chat and e-mail support are quick. Also available for contact on twitter.

DraftKings

Kind of hard not to be familiar with DraftKings seeing as they are probably the top advertiser of any major gambling company and also have sponsorships with most major sports. Including the UFC. 

1. Betting Experience: DraftKings offers a great product for the user. They cover pretty much any sport you can think of, they cover pretty much every betting market within those sports. They only area they might slightly be lacking is the size of teasers that you can make. But they compensate for that slightly but allowing you to build bets with very wide alternate lines. 
2. Deposits & Payouts: Depositing is fairly effortless, especially if you already have you information stored with them, They have a ton of options and recently started offering Venmo. Withdrawing is effortless as well with most options taking no longer then 2 days, bank selections such as transferring to you debit card can take 24 hours or less.
3. Customer Service: Their customer service is great. They typically do what they can to make sure the outcome of your issue is favorable for you, the response time is good as well. If you’re able to work your way up the Tiers program they offer you can get even quicker response time, as well as your own dedicated VIP host to deal with directly. 

FanDuel

Fanduel may not be great at any one thing, but they do a whole lot of things very well. You would be hard pressed to find any complaints when it comes to using FanDuel. Although the started of dedicated to Daily Fantasy Sports, their sporks book representation has been on point.

1. Betting Experience: They might not have the most sports to bet on out of its competitors, but they make up for that by having a ton of betting markets to bet on. You can also get lost some times with the vast number of options they have. One very popular is their ability to make 14 point teaser which people love especially during College Basketball season.
2. Deposits & Withdrawals: Making a deposit is easy, they have so many options it would take me less time to point out what they don’t have rather then what they do. Withdrawals are easy as well. Like DraftKings they also brought on Venmo as a choice on both ends.
3. Customer Service: Customer service with FanDual can take a little bit longer then some of the other books available. But overall their still very timely and responsive.

BetMGM

BetMGM for most people is a love hate relationship. There is a lot of things that aren’t so great, but they’re still worth using because there are plenty of things that are great. The app isn’t the best and neither is the customer service, but you won’t find a betting experience much better anywhere else.

1. Betting Experience: Options, options, and more options. People love options and BetMGM is full of them. They cover every sport you could think of, and within those sports they cover just about every league imaginable. The amount of things you can bet ones second to none also. Specifically for out Canadian brothers and sisters they hockey lines and betting options are probably the best out of the available options, which is saying a lot.
2. Deposits & Payouts: Like every other big name legal book there are a ton of options everywhere. The only difference is they are drastically slowing then pretty much everyone else. Average withdrawal time is between 1 - 5 days. 
3. Customer Service: The response time is fairly poor, and you have to make sure that you’re talking directly to someone in you state or providence because each app has their on set of representatives. Whenever you do eventually speak to someone they are generally helpful though. 

Caesars 

Much like DraftKings most people are fairly familiar with Caesars due to the amount of advertising they do. They also have brick and mortar casinos with helps the exposure as well, Caesars does a good job combining the experience between the two. And the reward program is good between the casino and sports book as well.

1. Betting Experience: Caesars offers a good amount of sports and betting markets to participate in. For some sports such as hockey and soccer they don’t offer the most extensive amount of leagues, They still do a very good job touching all sports in some capacity. 
2. Deposit & Withdrawal: Pretty much par for the course with everyone else in the industry in terms of options and speed. 
3. Customer Service: Customer service can be a little slow, but overall they do a great job responding and working to make sure things are in the customers favor. 

BC Sports Betting Market 

When it comes to the B.C sports betting market things could not possibly be better. There isn’t much to complain about here at all, it took quite some time as far as the legal frame work, but the days of parlays only are no more, and single bet gambling is here to stay. 

Canada of course will always have a thriving Hockey market, its most popular sport up there (for good reason) and its very reasonable that they will take in a ton of action by a wide margin. Next to hockey believe it or not is Baseball, its supposed to be Americas past-time but that doesn’t mean Canadians like it any less. Maybe even more considering the lack of teams, compared to the amount of people who are fans of the game. Football is extremely popular no matter where you go, and soccer being the global phenomena it is has a big hold in the Canadian betting market as well. 

How To Bet on Sports in BC

So you’re ready to get some action in the game? Well lets get it then! Here’s a quick rundown of what we need to do to get you betting in no time!

1. Choosing A Sportsbook: First things first, you need to find a book. Start out be deciding which sports are important to you, and then look into if they have the markets you like to bet on for said markets. 
2. Creating An Account: Next you’re going to want to create an account. Make sure you have two forms of proper identification with you because most books will require this upfront to sign up. If for some reason they don’t you will absolutely need them to withdraw whatever winnings you make down the road. 
3. Making Deposits & Withdrawals: This actually takes a bit of research too, yes its important to find the sports and betting markets you want, But its also as important to find the book that has the option that make you feel safest and are easiest to use. 
4. Placing Bets: Placing bets is pretty simple, find what you like after doing your research and make your wager. Also be sure you know what you’re betting on though. If you’re not quite sure what its going to take to get the result you need to look it up
5. Tips For Successful Sports Betting: The two most important things I can think of are picking 1 market and betting on that one market. There’s so much to bet on now a days you an get lost in a wave of information, and unless you work from home its almost impossible to cram the information you need, so make things easy on yourself and just bet on 1 thing. Secondly just pick 1 sport, again there’s so much information out there try your best to not get yourself stretched thing.

How to Sign Up to to a Sports Betting Site

So now we find a site, what do we do now?

1. Once you’ve found the site you want click register and go through the process. They may ask you some sensitive questions but that’s the nature of signing up to a sports book. They need be exactly sure of who you are before they let you start betting. But sure to use all legitimate information or you will have problems withdrawing money down the road. 
2. Have you ID ready. Most the time a sports betting site will require you have multiple forms of ID to sign up. In the rare chance they don’t it, you can be almost guaranteed that you will need them to withdrawal any money. 
3. Start betting!

Promotions and Bonuses In BC Sports Betting

Books offer a ton of promotions to try to sway you in the way of their product. You have to decide which ones work best for you. Some books offer a free risk free bet up to a certain amount of money, meaning the first bet you made will get returned to you if it loses. 

Many books have deposit match. You deposit X amount of dollars and the book will match you up to a certain amount of based on a certain percent. 

You can also bet a certain amount on a single bet, promoted by the site, and win or lose they will send give you a certain amount of money. For example you can bet the New York Rangers money line for $10, and regardless of the outcome they will give you $200 in the form of bonus bets 

Deposit and Withdrawal Options 

Because gambling is legal in this day and age its very easy to deposit and make withdrawals from sports book. At the bare minimum just about every book allows you to use Visa and Mastercard, with both debit and credit card. A lot of books offer PayPal, and within the last few years books have been accepting Venmo as well. Most book will also offer you a bank wire and e-check. I believe DraftKings is the only one to do this but you can order a check from them.

Most importantly make sure when you sign up that you’re using your actual information. No fake information, no one else’s information, yours and yours alone. Especially when it comes to using legal books, identity verification is very important, and if you somehow are able to sign up without using legitimate information there is no possible way you will ever again access to any money you withdrawal without providing it on the back end.

What Else Can You Bet on in B.C

So what else can you bet on within the beautiful providence of British Columbia? Working our way down the excessive amendment time line, the doors would open to gambling with the legalization of bingo in 1900, horse racing would soon follow becoming legal in 1910. The 60’s would bring them access to lotteries, cause of course the government thought that was a good idea to do fundraising for projects. In 1989 Winnipeg would get Canadas first land based casino making it so Canadians had access to any type of casino game they might enjoy playing, shortly after that 1993 would bring yet another amendment making it so Canadians could now play those same Casino games, but online.

The Future Of Sports Betting in British Columbia 

As far as Canada has come when it comes to single bet sports betting there are still a few hurdles to jump to make sure all forms aof gambling are accessible to everyone in every providence. 

Currently if you’re legally looking to make a single bet wager online you cannot do so in the North Western Territories of Canada. Crimes committed outside of Canada are not punishable by law, so you can use an offshore book without consequence however. 

While the North has its own set of problems, so does the South, if you’re looking to play Daily Fantasy Sports, unlike the North you cannot play this in the South. Daily Fantasy Sports was grouped into the bill for legalized gambling, and there is an argument that DFS isn’t exactly gambling so they currently don’t feel they should have to pay the same fees that are associated with gambling products. 

There is currently no fix for either of these issues in the near future, but if Canadian governments amendment happy history is any indication of things to come, it appears things will work there way out eventually,. 

Conclusion 

To be honest its taken quite a bit, but finally Canadians have the luxury of legally making single wager bets without being at the mercy of offshore books. Yes, there are some great offshore books out there, but unfortunately there are a bunch of bad ones as well, and many many people over the course of time have fallen victim to them and their schemes. 

The experience of betting with a legal book, really can’t be beaten, there’s certain comfort in using knowing the book is on your side for once and you don’t have to worry about them magically disappearing or something happening to your money or bets. You also know payouts will be fair and timely 

Now that the stressors are removed, its time to give sports betting a shot. If you a fan of sports there no better way to improve the experience 10 fold then putting a couple back down on your favorite team a couple times a week. Its always more fun with skin in the game!

Further Reading:

Best Sports Betting Apps in Canada

Sports Betting in Ontario