The Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA) and the Canadian Investment Regulatory Organization (CIRO) have issued guidance stating that event contracts tied to sports and entertainment outcomes should not be regulated under Canadian securities and derivatives legislation.
The joint notice, published August 27, responds to growing interest in prediction markets. CIRO also said it would not consider it appropriate to facilitate or approve applications from dealer members seeking to trade these contracts.
CSA Chair Stan Magidson said: “It is important for investors and market participants to understand that event contracts based on sports- or entertainment-related activities or outcomes should not be regulated within securities and derivatives legislation,”
“This notice provides important clarifications regarding the role and responsibility of Canadian securities regulators when it comes to certain types of event contracts.”
The CSA and CIRO continue to assess the status of event contracts outside the categories covered by the guidance.
Sports Wagering Remains A Provincial Matter
The Canadian Gaming Association (CGA) welcomed the clarification and said sports wagering should remain within provincial gaming frameworks.
CGA President and CEO Paul Burns said: “The Canadian Gaming Association welcomes today’s guidance from CSA and CIRO staff,”
“It brings clarity to a question that matters a great deal to Canadian consumers, provincial governments, and the licensed gaming industry: sports wagering is sports betting, whatever the platform, and it belongs within the framework that provinces have built specifically to regulate it.”
Canada’s Criminal Code gives provincial governments responsibility for regulating gambling products, including sports betting. Ontario and Alberta license commercial operators, while other provinces restrict legal gambling to government-owned platforms.
Burns added: “Online gaming and sports betting are entertainment products,”
“The Association is ready to work with CSA, CIRO, and provincial regulators as further guidance is developed, and to support efforts to ensure a consistent, high standard of consumer protection for sports wagering across Canada, regardless of how a product is structured or marketed.”
Loto-Québec also stated that sports event contracts are illegal in Québec.
Prediction Market Access Remains Restricted
Two CIRO dealer members, Wealthsimple and Interactive Brokers Canada, have received authorization to facilitate trading in a limited range of event contracts under conditions set by CIRO and the CSA.
Current rules allow contracts taking at least 30 days to resolve and cover environmental forecasts, financial markets and economic indicators. Sports, entertainment and election contracts remain excluded. Eligible contracts must trade and clear through specified US Commodity Futures Trading Commission-regulated exchanges and clearinghouses.
Wealthsimple partnered with Kalshi in June and launched Wealthsimple Predict, offering approximately 4,000 Kalshi event contracts. In an August 4 whitepaper, Wealthsimple argued that sports event contracts traded and cleared through regulated derivatives intermediaries should remain under securities regulation.
The latest CSA-CIRO guidance takes the opposite position for sports and entertainment contracts.
In 2025, Polymarket settled with the Ontario Securities Commission after admitting it breached the province’s Binary Options Ban and received a two-year prohibition from operating in Ontario.
Source:
“Prediction markets: CSA and CIRO provide guidance on certain types of event contracts”, osc.ca, August 27, 2026
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