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Canadian regulators have sent another clear message on prediction markets. Event contracts may be allowed in narrow cases, but sports betting, election wagering, and short-dated binary options remain outside the line.
Good to Know
The Canadian Securities Administrators and the Canadian Investment Regulatory Organization used a fresh statement on Thursday to remind firms that event contracts are tightly restricted in Canada. Any firm trading them, or helping clients trade them, must comply with securities or derivatives law. Regulators also warned that failures can bring enforcement action.
The timing was not random. A CIRO bulletin issued last week laid out the current limits for dealer members after Wealthsimple won approval for a narrow set of event contracts, following similar approval for the Canadian arm of Interactive Brokers earlier. Even with those approvals, the lane is narrow. Contracts must stay tied to areas such as economics, financial markets, or the environment, and they must have at least 30 days to maturity. Sports betting and election wagering are not allowed.
Regulators also made clear that no prediction market has been recognized in Canada as an exchange or registered as a dealer, or exempted from those requirements, by the CSA. In other words, Canadian clients may get limited access through approved investment dealers, but the broader U.S. style model has not been welcomed north of the border.
That stance fits with Canada earlier action on binary options. In some CSA jurisdictions, rules prohibit anyone from advertising, offering, selling, or trading a binary option with a term to maturity of less than 30 days to an individual investor. Ontario already used that approach against Polymarket. In April 2025, the Ontario Securities Commission settled with current and former operators of the platform over breaches of the binary options ban. Contracts tied to sports and politics were part of the case, and the settlement included fines, two-year market bans, and restrictions on promoting the platform to people in Ontario.
The latest reminder lands as U.S. prediction markets keep growing and keep drawing heat from lawmakers and regulators. Canada, by contrast, is showing little interest in opening the door to that kind of expansion. For now, the message is simple: keep event contracts narrow, keep them long dated, and keep sports and politics out.
Only in limited form. Regulators allow narrow event contracts through approved firms, but they must follow securities or derivatives law.
No. Current CIRO terms do not allow sports betting style event contracts.
At least 30 days.
Ontario regulators reached a settlement over breaches of the binary options ban, including contracts tied to sports and politics.
No. The CSA said no prediction market has been recognized as an exchange or registered as a dealer, or exempted from those rules.