Gambling has become a habitual part of the sports industry over the past decade.
A report from Statista.com stated that Canada has the greatest user penetration rate in the sports betting business, with an estimated rate of 40.8 per cent.
In that same report, by 2029, revenue is anticipated to expand at a compound annual growth rate of 5.09 per cent, reaching a predicted market volume of almost $95 billion with the number of users expected to amount to $206.6 million.
Francesco Cesario, a former Herzing College graduate and sports fan, uses betting apps to bet on his favourite sporting events. He said gambling adds a new level when watching the sports he loves.
“I really enjoy it, obviously I'm smart with the bets I make, but I love it,” he said. “If I have a parlay going it definitely puts more excitement into watching the games that I'm betting on.”
Betting apps offer a myriad of ways for fans to get involved in the action by offering numerous possibilities and scenarios to gamble on and methods to do it.
Most of these apps such as FanDuel, feature more than two dozen sports to wager on, including major sports like hockey, basketball, baseball, football, and soccer. Fans also have access to more niche offerings like cycling and snooker.
“I usually stick to the sports I watch, but there are so many sports you can bet on in these apps, it's kinda crazy,” Cesario said.
Just like Cesario, many other sports fanatics trying to put extra bucks in their pockets have made sports betting apps very popular and have shown no signs of slowing down.
The legalization in Canada for sports betting in August 2021 has benefited the country with positives such as tax revenue, job creation, sports sponsorships and partnerships and much more.
However, with these so-called positives to sports betting also come the negatives.
ConnexOntario.ca, a website that provides information for people experiencing problems such as gambling, recorded 523 contacts from 2024 to January 2025, that indicated sports online gambling as their gambling problem.
Anne Counter, the director of System Navigation and Information Services at ConnexOntario, said there are many issues with online sports gambling as it has become more accessible for users.
"Some negative effects can certainly be, obviously some financial distress if someone is betting more than they could afford to lose," Counter said. "It can cause problems with relationships if the gambling starts to interfere with other activities."
Counter said because online gambling is more convenient and accessible, the increase in negatives such as Financial problems could affect a greater range of people.
Lucas Bojda, a student at York University, isn't a fan of the betting lifestyle. He said sports gambling has become ubiquitous.
“Everywhere you look you’ll find something that has to do with sports betting," he said. "For me, it’s too much, it's like it’s part of being a sports fan now.
"I've seen many people lose a lot of money and it’s something I don't wanna risk, you even see players doing it now and getting caught,” Bojda said.
While spectators and fans are allowed to wager as much money as they crave, athletes and league personnel are forbidden from gambling for obvious reasons.
Match fixings are among the reasons why athletes and personnel are restricted from betting but that has not stopped them from trying.
The most recent occurrence of a betting scandal in the sports world involved a Major League Baseball umpire, Pat Hoberg.
He was fired by MLB last Monday for sharing his legal sports gambling accounts with a friend who bet on baseball games and for intentionally deleting electronic messages involved in the league's investigation.
According to the MLB, between April 2, 2021, and Nov. 1, 2023, Hoberg’s friend placed 141 baseball wagers totalling almost $214,000, with an overall win of almost $35,000.
Another betting scandal incident closer to home involved Toronto Raptors former forward-centre Jontay Porter, who was investigated by the NBA for making prop bets from games involving himself.
The NBA permanently banned Porter from the league on April 17, 2024, after investigations found him guilty of betting on NBA games including the Raptors, sharing confidential information about his health to other bettors, using another person's betting account for himself and pretending to be injured to justify betting on games.
As online sports betting increases in popularity, more positives and negatives will appear, but it is up to the user to make the right call.
