Basketball Betting Sites in Canada [ 2024 ]

Top Canadian Sports Betting Sites For BasketballBasketball is big in Canada, so it’s no wonder that Canadians love placing bets on this sport.

In case you didn’t know, wagering on basketball is now available online, as there are plenty of sports betting sites offering their services to Canadian bettors. You can access plenty of popular competitions, including the National Basketball Association (NBA), which is the number one basketball league in the world.

The good news is that you can find plenty of other leagues to bet on, including EuroLeague and leagues from various countries or territories.

Most importantly, sportsbooks always cover international basketball competitions, such as the FIBA Basketball World Cup and Summer Olympics Basketball.

Interested in placing bets?

You’re on the right page, as our team of experts will introduce you to some of the best online betting sites available in the Great White North. We’ll cover our sportsbook selection process and then discuss various betting markets, betting bonuses, strategies, tips, and more.

Read on.

Recommended Canadian Sports Betting Sites For Basketball

Top RatedBeing one of the most popular sports in the world, basketball is available in most online sportsbooks. However, not every single betting site is worth your time or money.

Our team of experts embarked on a journey to find Canada’s best Basketball betting sites that cover all top-tier basketball leagues and competitions. We created a unique assessment test, covering all major points of sports betting sites, including their security, licenses, betting markets, bonuses, payment options, customer support and more.

You will never want to take any chances in regards to betting online and as such if you want to be safe in the knowledge that when you win you are going to get paid quickly on any betting event including Basketball wagers and events, then make sure you rigidly stick to betting at our top-rated Basketball betting sites listed below, all of whom have some special free offers to give away to new customers who sign up today.

After extensive research, we were able to make the ultimate list of the best basketball sportsbooks. Let’s check them out.

#1
Rating
5
Bonus Offer 100% UP TO CAD 200
  • Canadian players accepted
#2
Rating
4.9
Bonus Offer 100% UPTO CAD 200
  • Canadian players accepted
#3
Rating
4.9
Bonus Offer 50% UPTO CAD 2500
  • Canadian players accepted
#4
Rating
4.5
Bonus Offer 100% UPTO C$250
  • Canadian players accepted
#5
Rating
4.9
Bonus Offer 100% UPTO CAD 125
  • Canadian players accepted

If you wish to take advantage of any Basketball bonus or Basketball free bet that we have listed above, be aware that they may change from time to time, whilst we do update our website regularly it is advisable that you visit the betting sites whose offers interest you to make sure the listed bonus or free Basketball bet is still available, and when you visit the betting site always familiarise yourself with the terms and conditions of the bonuses and free bets.

How We Select Top Canadian Basketball Betting Sites

ChecklistEvery betting landscape requires a unique approach, meaning the list of best basketball sites for Canada differs from the same list for another country. While taking country-specific betting preferences in mind, we were able to rank sites and create a unique list that Canadian players will love.

We analyzed every aspect that makes up an online sportsbook, rating them on a scale from one to ten and including only the ones that received a perfect score. Let us discuss the selection process in detail.

Licenses & Regulations

It’s extremely important to stay away from unregulated online betting sites, as they are sometimes not safe enough. In the best-case scenario, they’ll just take your money and give nothing in return. However, they can go a step further and steal your sensitive data.

You’ll find no such sites on our list. Instead, we checked the licenses of every single betting site we reviewed and included the ones that are regulated by a reputable gambling commission.

Each site has a clean history, meaning they have no records of illegal operations. Therefore, you don’t have to worry about regulations at all — they are pretty regulated.

Basketball Betting Markets

Even though you’ll find plenty of basketball betting options in online sportsbooks, some might not have a generous offer of betting markets.

Therefore, we ensured that all sites cover markets that Canadian bettors enjoy, including Moneyline, futures, totals and much more. We’ll talk about different basketball betting options later.

Basketball Betting Bonuses

Did you know that online betting sites compete with each other? All of them have the same goal — to attract as many bettors as possible.

Since the competition has become quite stiff lately in Canada, betting platforms have improved their bonus offers, and we took that into account.

No matter which site you join, you’ll probably receive some kind of welcome bonus. The trick is — some sites offer better bonuses than others.

To separate the wheat from the chaff, we had to take a deep dive into each site’s terms and conditions and learn the real value of offered bonuses.

Live Betting

Many Canadians love placing bets while games are underway. That’s why we consider live betting an essential part of every online sports betting site.

The ones that made it to our final list feature state-of-the-art live betting sections that come with a wide array of basketball betting markets. Needless to say, all major basketball leagues are covered in live betting, with particular attention paid to the NBA on all available sites.

Mobile Betting

When was the last time you wanted to check some information and turned on your PC or laptop for that? If you cannot remember, the chances are you use your mobile device more often than desktop computers, and you’ll love placing basketball bets using your phone.

Here’s the best part — all betting sites on our list offer betting on the go.

The only thing that’s different is that some of them offer special apps for Android and iOS devices, while others are just optimized to work on mobile browsers. Feel free to test how they work on your phone or tablet to choose the one you like the most.

Deposits & Withdrawals

To place real-money bets, you’ll have to use one of the accepted payment methods and make a deposit. Luckily, Canada is one of the countries with a wide range of online payment methods, and we selected the platforms that accept most of them.

We also analyzed minimum and maximum deposit and withdrawal limits, as well as the average withdrawal pending time for each site we reviewed.

Customer Support

Finally, every new member of a sports betting site will require some kind of assistance at one point. Customer support plays an integral part in online sportsbooks, but some provide better service than others.

We tested the quality and promptness of responses of customer support teams of all betting sites we reviewed. Moreover, we wanted to learn how good they are when it comes to basketball betting, so we sent an NBA-related question about specific odds and betting markets.

Some customer service agents took more time to respond and provided vague answers. 

Legal BettingStrictly speaking, you can place bets legally on one of the few regulated online betting sites, but the betting options are fairly limited.

However, there’s no law against joining offshore betting platforms, and they have a much more versatile offer for basketball lovers.

That said, you’re free to join one of them if you want to have the best possible experience.

Basketball in Canada

Canada also has a basketball league of its own called the National Basketball League of Canada (NBL Canada). The league was established in 2011 and initially had just three teams.

Since then the league has grown and now features 10 teams which include 2016 winners Halifax Hurricanes who defeated London Lightning in the NBL Finals.

Canadians also bet on NBL games but it is the NBA which attracts the highest number of wagers in basketball.

Canadian Betting: Basketball

There is a huge market segment in Canada that follow basketball and bet on NBA games throughout the season. While most Canadians have a favourite team in the NBA, they also make wagers on other teams depending on the odds. There are quite a few reputed sports betting websites in Canada that offer basketball betting.

William Hill, Paddy Power, 888 Sports, Betfair and Bet365 are a few of the sports betting websites that offer both online and mobile app betting for bettors who like to wager on the go. These sports betting websites cover all NBA matches and also mainstream basketball tournaments such as the Olympics and the FIBA Basketball World Cup.

There are a number of different wagers offered on basketball matches such as first quarter, second quarter and third quarter scores, final results, score-line and player of the match. Each quarter in the NBA goes on for a period of 12 minutes and there are also a number of time-outs. Since these games go on for well over an hour, most sports betting websites also offer in-play betting on basketball matches.

Top Basketball Betting Events

Basketball is of course a popular sport in many different countries and across lots of continents, most people usually associate this sport with the US, however, there are many places where you will find Basketball games running throughout the year and as such there are a huge number of sporting fixtures and events that you can place a Basketball wager on.

You can place bets on teams playing against each other in both the EuroLeague and the Euro Basket, or if you follow American Basketball matches then you will find more than enough wagering opportunities on the NBA and Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) Matches. Keep on reading to find out what type of wagers can be placed and of course the very best sites to place your wagers to guarantee you get the best odds and rapid payouts should you place a winning Basketball bet.

Let’s take a brief overview of all popular basketball tournaments and leagues you can bet on in online sportsbooks.

National Basketball Association (NBA)

The NBA needs no introduction. If you like basketball, the chances are the NBA is your league of choice. After all, it is the best basketball league in the world, featuring the most talented and successful players.

The NBA format consists of two conferences — Eastern and Western. Each team plays every other team during the regular season, and the best eight from each conference go to the playoffs. Teams then play the best-of-four series in a knockout format until the conference winners are determined.

In the end, Western and Eastern conference winners meet in the championship series, and the winner receives the NBA Championship ring.

The NBA has some of the most well-known teams and players in global basketball featuring the likes of the Chicago Bulls, LA Lakers, Golden State Warriors, Boston Celtics and the Cleveland Cavaliers. The stars of the NBA over the years have been the main reason why basketball has grown as a global sport.

Some of the popular NBA players over the years include Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan, Shaquille O’Neal, Kobie Bryant, LeBron James and Stephen Curry. Canada has also produced a number of basketball players who have featured in the NBA.

Some of them include Steve Nash who played for the LA Lakers, Tristan Thompson and Andrew Wiggins who represented the Cleveland Cavaliers and Kelly Olynyk who played for the Boston Celtics.

If you want to bet on the NBA, you’ll probably find it in every online sportsbook.

College Basketball

College basketball is also a popular competition, especially in the US, but some Canadians enjoy it as well. You’re more likely to find US college games in online sportsbooks rather than Canadian ones.

EuroLeague

The EuroLeague is the major European basketball league featuring teams from all European countries. Many European players were part of the EuroLeague before going to the NBA, where they gained substantial experience. Also, many American players build their careers in Europe rather than in the NBA.

Being the most popular league in the Old Continent, the EuroLeague is also present on many online betting sites. Some of the most popular teams are Real Madrid, CSKA Moscow, Maccabi Tel Aviv, Panathinaikos, Olympiacos, Barcelona, and others.

European National Leagues

Almost all European countries have their respective national leagues. Some of the most popular ones are:

  • Spain’s Liga ACB
  • Turkish Basketball Super League (BSL)
  • Russia’s VTB United League
  • Germany’s Basketball Bundesliga (BBL)
  • Italy’s Lega Basket Serie A (LBA)
  • France’s LNB Pro A
  • Adriatic League (ABA) (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Slovenia, Serbia, Montenegro, Croatia, and Macedonia)
  • Greek A1 League
  • Lithuania’s LKL

Other Countries

Basketball is pretty popular worldwide, and you’re likely to find some of the following leagues in online sportsbooks:

  • Australia’s National Basketball League
  • Chinese Basketball Association
  • Liga Nacional de Básquet (Argentina)
  • Novo Basquete Brasil (Brazil)
  • National Basketball League of Canada (NBL)

International Competitions

There are also several international tournaments, with the three most popular ones being:

  • FIBA Basketball World Cup
  • Basketball at the Summer Olympics
  • FIBA 3×3 World Cup

Types of Bets in Basketball

There are many creative ways to bet on basketball. They are often referred to as betting markets, and we’ll describe some of the most popular ones below.

It does of course depend on just which Basketball events you have chosen to wager on as to just which types of bets and wagers you are able to place, however, some of the more commonly found wagering and betting opportunities that are available on Basketball matches can be found below.

You are able to place a simple type of Match Betting wagers and when you place such a bet you are simply hoping to pick the team to win any one match, many betting sites also offer Handicap Betting where one side is given a start to allow the odds on offer to be more balanced. Other betting types include you being able to predict the Total Points or whether the Total Points will be either odd or even!

If you don’t have experience wagering on basketball, think of this section as an introduction to the activity.

Future Bets

Future bets allow punters to predict a winner of an entire tournament. These bets are usually made before the competition starts, meaning you’ll have to wait for it to end to find out whether you made the right decision.

Here’s a practical example.

You can bet that the Toronto Raptors would win the next NBA season. According to some sportsbooks, the odds of that happening are 25.00. Therefore, if you bet $100 and the Raptors end up winning in the end, you’ll receive a total of $2,500.

Two-Way

Two-way bets are perhaps the most common type a basketball bettor can make. All you have to do is select one team to win the upcoming match. If they win, you’ll win a bet, and if they lose, you’ll not win anything.

For example, let’s say that the Raptors are playing the Hornets, and the odds for Toronto winning are set to 2.5. If you bet $100 on the Canadian team and it wins, you’ll receive $250. If it loses, you’ll lose your initial wager.

Totals (Over/Under)

Basketball is great for sportsbooks because many points are scored, which paves the way for a wide range of over/under bets. The most common type is called totals or total points bet. Here’s how it works.

A sportsbook would suggest a number that should be scored in a game, and you get to bet whether there will be more (over) or less (under) points than that.

We’ll take the Raptors vs Hornets example once again.

Let’s say that the sportsbooks think the two teams will score a total of 215 points in the game. If you believe that this is going to be a low-scoring duel, you should place an under bet. Otherwise, select over.

How do we determine this? Well, this is where your basketball knowledge comes into play. You should take into account the previous scores of both teams, as well as their previous games (especially if there’s a series going on).

However, over/under bets can also apply to one team only, or even to individual players. For example, you can bet that the Raptors would score more than 100 points or that, say, Pascal Siakam will score less than 20 points in the game.

Point Spread

Point spread betting is perhaps one of the most interesting betting markets, but it also takes a lot of basketball knowledge to get it right. This betting market is also called handicapped betting, as a certain number of points usually handicap the favourite.

Let’s say that the Raptors need to face the LA Lakers as an underdog and that most sportsbooks consider the game an easy win for the team from Los Angeles. Betting on them wouldn’t be quite challenging, so the bookies would “handicap” the Lakers.

You’ll see something like this — Lakers -10.5.

It means that if you bet on the Lakers, they not only have to win but also make a 10+ point difference. In other words, sports betting sites make the two teams equal by handicapping one of them.

But this also works the other way around. In this case, you’ll see the following offer: Raptors +10.5. Essentially, if you place your bet on Toronto, you’ll win the bet even if the Raptors lose — they just have to make sure that the point difference is less than ten.

In most cases, you’ll notice that the odds are identical for both teams. By handicapping them, sportsbook achieved a scenario where both teams have an equal chance to win.

Half-Time/Full-Time

If guessing the winner of a game isn’t challenging enough for you, you can try to guess the winner at half-time and full-time. Getting both periods right comes with a lower probability, but the payouts for these betting markets are usually much better. This is especially difficult if two equal teams play.

The possibilities are endless since you can also make the point spread half-time/full-time bets or even combine it with an even/under bet.

Quarter/Period

If betting on the outcome seems like waiting too much, you can guess the winner of the next quarter or the entire separate period. This betting market is particularly handy for those who enjoy live betting.

Let’s say that the Raptors are losing to the LA Lakers, and they lost each of the first three quarters individually. However, the LA Lakers aren’t as motivated in the last quarter as they have a considerable advantage.

A possible scenario is that the Raptors will try to decrease the point difference in the last quarter, so you can bet on them winning it. Even if they lose the game in the end but score more points in the fourth quarter, you’ll win your bet.

Odd/Even

This is a simple betting market that allows you to guess whether the final number of points at the end will be odd or even. It’s a typical 50:50 bet that relies on the element of luck and doesn’t take your sports betting skills into account.

Combo

Combo bets allow you to combine several betting markets and get better odds. For example, you can bet that the Raptors will win against the Hornets and that the total number of points will be over 215.

It’s safe to say that combo bets are only for experienced bettors who know how to make the most out of them. Still, if you feel like playing around and risking a bit, you can combine some betting markets yourself.

Proposition Bets

Finally, some sportsbooks make propositions about players, games, or even entire tournaments, and you can back them up with a bet. For instance, a proposition bet can look like this: “The first team to score will also win the game.” If you think that something like that will happen, you can place your money on it.

A player-specific bet can be: “LeBron James will score the first three-pointer in the game”.

Please take into account that many sportsbooks list over/under bets as prop bets. Therefore, the betting market categories we presented in this article might look somewhat different once you join an online sportsbook. Nevertheless, we encourage you to examine them closely before making your first bet.

Basketball Betting Bonuses

Every new customer who joins an online sportsbook is eligible for a welcome bonus (if there’s one). Moreover, regular bettors receive all kinds of promotions from time to time, so we decided to make a short overview of bonuses you can find on sports betting sites.

Welcome Bonus

Welcome bonuses are awarded to newcomers who open an account and make a deposit. You’ll usually receive a bonus amount on top of your deposit that you can use for placing bets. Make sure to read more about wagering requirements, odds requirements, and expiry dates before claiming the bonus.

No Deposit Bonus

You’ll receive a no-deposit welcome bonus just for signing up on a sports betting site. These are usually much smaller compared to deposit bonuses, but they’re still completely free!

Reload Bonus

A reload bonus is a type of deposit bonus awarded to regular customers. Simply put, when they collect this bonus and make a deposit, they’ll receive an additional amount of money as a reward.

Free Bets

A free bet bonus is awarded after a new player makes their first bet in real money. The sportsbook will simply compensate them the amount they wagered. This bonus is usually between $5 and $30.

Money-Back Bonus

If you fail to make a winning bet, you’ll receive some of your lost money back to your balance when opting in for a money-back (cashback) bonus.

Referral Bonus

Get a small bonus for inviting your friends to a platform. This promotion is not very frequent, but if there’s one and you have a lot of friends who like sports, invite them to get extra betting money.

There are plenty of promotions that sportsbooks run for specific sports, especially for important games or tournaments. For example, players can get better odds for the championship series in the NBA.

Basketball Betting Tips

Tips
Basketball betting is not difficult on the surface, but once you start diving deeper, you’ll encounter plenty of strategies that can help you improve your wagering experience.

If you want to hedge your bets, one of the best ways of doing this is to use in-play betting.

You are going to be amazed at just how many betting opportunities surround the sport of Basketball, and in this Guide to Basketball Betting, you are going to come across all of the facts and figures and betting information to ensure you know when and where to place your wagers whilst discover top 10 betting sites offering some huge free bets and Basketball bonus offers.

We’ll share a couple of basic ones that every new bettor should know.

  • Check the starting lineup. — Pay close attention to the players on each team and also to the starting line-up in each game. Always check whether some of the key players are missing before making any wagers, as that can severely affect the balance between teams.
  • Home court isn’t always an advantage. — If a team is on the home court, it doesn’t mean that they have better chances of winning.
  • Don’t let emotions cloud your judgment. — Don’t bet on your favourite teams just because you root for them and cannot see the balance of powers clearly.
  • Look for signs of fatigue. — Professional basketball leagues (the NBA in particular) can be very fast-pacing, and some players or even entire teams can get tired.
  • Don’t overdo it. — Always plan your budget upfront and don’t spend more time or money on betting than you initially planned, as that can lead to gambling problems.
  • Past Performances – Take the time to study the performance of the team during its last 5 games.

Have a really good look through this betting guide as it is going to open your eyes to the value that can be found online.

Final Thoughts

To sum up, betting on basketball is a highly entertaining activity, especially if you consider yourself a fan of the popular sport. There are plenty of sportsbooks out there that cover all major basketball competitions, but some of them failed to meet our expectations.

That’s why we made a list of the best betting sites for basketball and created this guide. Hopefully, you now have a better understanding of how basketball betting works and how to enjoy wagering on the popular sport in Canadian online sportsbooks.

Basketball Betting FAQ

Author Hey all! My name is Doug Hirdle, and I am the main author at Betting.ca. As a huge sports fan, for years I have thought about running a website that’s going to provide people with the latest news from the world of sports. However, watching sports is not my only passion, as I also love...