Justice Minister David Lametti announced the launch date outside Fallsview Casino Resort in Niagara Falls, Ontario.
The August 27 date gives Canadians the opportunity to wager on single games in time for the 2021 NFL regular season.
"Provinces and territories will be able to offer single event sport betting products, like wagering on the Grey Cup, game seven of the Stanley Cup Finals, or the Super Bowl," Lametti said. "These changes to the Criminal Code will allow provinces and territories to use revenues to fund programming, such as health care or education, as they do with other lottery revenues."
The Ontario Lottery and Gaming Commission was one of several provincial lotteries to celebrate the announcement. The OLG says it will launch PROLINE+ on August 27, which enables players to place a single event wager on their mobile device, table or desktop in the province of Ontario. OLG is accepting early registrations for PROLINE+.
“OLG has been looking forward to offering single event sports wagering to adult Ontarians for many years,” said Duncan Hannay, OLG President and CEO. “We’re thrilled that we’ll be able to incorporate this exciting feature that bettors have been anxiously awaiting into Ontario’s only legal online sportsbook.
The British Columbia Lottery Corp. will also launch single event wagering on the start date through PlayNow.
Several US-based operators have prepared for the start of Canadian single game sports betting by expanding operations or making acquisitions up north.
Last week Penn National Gaming acquired Toronto-based Score Media, operator of theScoreBet app, for $2bn.
PointsBet has developed a Canadian leadership team headed by former Rogers Communications senior vice president Scott Vanderwal. BetMGM, meanwhile, recently nabbed a partnership deal with The Hockey News, one of the most popular publications covering Canada’s favorite sport.
