If you’re a sports fan, you’ve probably noticed it too.
Whether it’s Formula 1 on a Sunday morning or Hockey Night in Canada, one thing seems constant: sports betting is everywhere.
No matter the league, the country, or the sport, every game seems to share the same background noise: odds scrolling beneath the score, sportsbooks stitched onto jerseys, or betting lines baked into broadcast itself. In fact, a 2025 In fact, a 2025 University of Bristol analysis of the Stanley Cup Final found that viewers were exposed to one gambling-related marketing message every 17 seconds on average. Across the Atlantic, the Premier League’s opening weekend saw that number jump to one every five seconds.
Today, it’s hard to separate sports betting from the viewing experience. But what feels like part of the game is something else entirely: a system engineered to pull money—especially from a generation raised online—out of fans’ pockets.
When Canada legalized single-event sports betting in 2021, immediacy was king. It became possible to bet on the outcome of the coin toss at the Grey Cup, the length of the national anthem at the Super Bowl, or how many goals Stuart Skinner would let in during Game Six of the Stanley Cup Finals (a lot!).
This new age of real-time betting paved the way for rapid expansion, particularly in Ontario. As reported by iGaming Ontario, the province went a step further the following year by opening its doors to private sportsbook operators such as FanDuel and DraftKings—a move that remains unique among Canadian provinces, and one that saw immediate results:
- Year 1 (Apr. 2022 – Mar. 2023): Total online gambling wagers were $35.5B. Betting wagers were not separately reported.
- Year 2 (Apr. 2023 – Mar. 2024): Total online gambling wagers increased to $51.7B, of which $9.7B came from betting (including sports, esports, and proposition bets).
- Year 3 (Apr. 2024 – Mar. 2025): Total online gambling wagers rose sharply to $82.7B, with $11.4B attributed to betting (including sports, esports, and proposition bets).
Note: Betting includes sports, esports, proposition and novelty bets, as well as exchange betting.
The proliferation of sports betting in the modern game is bolstered by the seemingly endless incentives that sit on top of that accessibility. Welcome bonuses, “risk-free” bets, and constant
promotions lower the perceived cost of participation, all while celebrity endorsements help normalize the behaviour.
In Ontario, athletes are no longer allowed to advertise sportsbooks—a nod to how powerful these endorsements can be—but the marketing machine shows no signs of slowing. When movie superstars and familiar faces frame betting as casual, social, and even clever, placing a wager feels less like gambling and more like entertainment. From a business perspective, it’s a sticky combination: incentives pull users in, familiarity keeps them comfortable, and repetition builds habit.
But as betting becomes easier, it also becomes social. All over Instagram, wagers and odds dominate sports fans’ feeds, showing up in group chats alongside memes and highlights. When betting is no longer framed as risk, but rather as culture, opting out can feel like missing part of the experience.
Although it’s hard to spot, that pressure matters. A 2024 Canadian national survey found that nearly one in three adults aged 18 to 29 now gamble online; among those who do, almost 70% meet the criteria for problem gambling, and nearly a quarter report significant gambling-related harm, from mounting debt to psychological distress. The survey goes on to state that its findings support the argument that sports wagering is “what operators use to attract customers to their websites, where they can then be funneled to online casino games, typically available on the same website, where profits are much higher”.
That’s precisely why DraftKings gives you $300 on your first $5 bet, why FanDuel will chuck in an extra $250 in bonus bets on your first win, or why BetMGM will give your money back if your first few bets don’t hit. By handing out hundreds of dollars in bonus bets to new users, these promotions function as classic loss leaders. In other words, Sportsbooks don’t need you to lose immediately to be profitable; they need you to stay. Once a bettor is retained, early wins are rarely withdrawn. Instead, “profits” are recycled into additional wagers, extending engagement rather than ending it. This dynamic helps explain the survey’s findings—of the aforementioned $82.7 billion wagered by Ontarians in the 2024-25 year, $69.6 billion came from online casino play. Sports betting acts as the entry point, while profitability is increasingly realized through higher-frequency casino products:
- Apr. 2023 – Mar. 2024: Casino revenue totaled $1.8B, betting revenue reached $588M, and peer-to-peer poker revenue was $67M, resulting in $2.4B in total gaming revenue.
- Apr. 2024 – Mar. 2025: Casino revenue increased to $2.4B, betting revenue rose to $724M, and peer-to-peer poker revenue was $66M, bringing total gaming revenue to $3.2B.
This is the unwritten wager the industry makes: that the pull of instant gratification will always outweigh the rational long-term cost. As a business model, sports betting is undeniably effective. Low friction, high engagement, and deeply embedded in the raw moments of sports; the question is not whether it works—but what the long-term consequences of that success may be. And for a generation uniquely susceptible to digital engagement, it is a bet that is currently paying off handsomely.